My Little Fire Flower
by Monokub
Summary: A look back into the Mama Cinder AU, of raising a young Ruby to this very day. How did they come about, how did they live, and how does Cinder manage to live like this? Take a look, and see into the history of Mama Cinder, and her little "Fire Flower", Ruby Rose, as she continues to grow into what she is today. Currently: Volume 2 Time Period
1. Her Little Fire Flower

**A/N: Ok so first a quick heads-up: This isn't the Rwby fanfic i had mentioned earlier. I actually got the idea for this after reading around a bit. Apparently, there's a huge fanbase centered around a "Mama Cinder AU" series made by someone named "kinzaibatsu91" or something from a tumblr- and while there's only a few chapters online (and I mean that for any fanfic out there, I've seen maybe 7 chapters in total if I combined all the chapters of every fanfic related to the Mama Cinder-universe) someone has a whole tumblr that started this great idea, and for the love of rwby I feel the need to spread it by adding my 2 cents and create a "Mama Cinder" fanfic.**

 **Point is I want to help bring the Mama Cinder AU to the world, because honestly I'm also a supporter in the idea that Cinder MIGHT be Ruby's actual mother. Whether or not people support this idea, I am under the impression her mother is still alive because 1- if my lifetime of anime taught me one thing, is that a simple gravestone without the scene showing how the character died = not dead, and 2- for the "photographic proof showing her mother's face"; HER HOOD COVERS 2/3rds OF HER FACE! It doesn't exactly mean anything, especially if the picture was taken dozens of years ago XD!**

 **Well, Ruby's mother aside, I'm still a fan of this pairing (idk if it's considered a "shipping" pairing, but it's definitely my favorite so far ^^...btw did you know they have a freaking chart to categorize and TITLE every single pairing out there? It's nuts how big the shippign in this universe is...).**

 **So without further delay, let's continue on with the fanfic ^^ And as a note, if this fanfic gets great reception/feedback, I will definitely continue onward, you guys let me know :P.**

 **(P.S. I also don't entirely know the details in which this Mama Cinder universe takes place, so if some things aren't accurate, I apologize...ENJOY!)**

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...

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"Waaaaaaaahhh!"

"Ugghhh..."

There it was again.

That incipient crying sound. It was basically the first alarm clock Cinder had the "privilege" of waking up to every morning around 3 A.M. By now she had gotten used to dragging her body out of the bed and dragging her feet over to the crib in the room.

Living within a warehouse, there wasn't so much room to spread around, so she was forced to share the same room with the baby. If she managed to steal enough money in the future, then hopefully they could afford more space around here. But it was hard enough just trying to maintain their operations AND raise the young infant at the same time, so money was a bit tight on hand at times.

It probably didn't help that they had to move every several weeks, so getting space was the least of their worries.

"Aaawwaughhuhh!" The baby continued to cry. By now Cinder didn't need more than a minute or two of the crying to get her out of bed, but every cry was enough to wake up her still-sleeping bones more and more.

"Yeah, yeah, I can smell you from here..." Cinder mumbled as she lifted the small baby from the crib, bringing her over to an improvised changing table which mostly consisted of a few soft boxes with a blanket over it.

It was times when she was doing a disgusting job like this or some hassle to get something the one-year-old needed that Cinder questioned herself.

Why was she doing this? It's not like the baby was useful to them in any situation. There was no guarantee that she would prove useful someday to her, whether it be the most simplest of tasks or pulling together a grand scheme for them. There wasn't even guarantee that she would live for that long! For all she knew she could just get hit by a car one day and just die on them, wasting every point of caring for her now.

Why did she have to burden herself like this when she could've just dropped the brat off at some doorstep, let it be someone else's problem? The baby never did anything productive during the last several months it's been with her, it's never done anything to help their organization other than being a huge annoyance to everyone.

She couldn't even get her to say "mama" of all things!...Not that she was trying for the last four months and wasting what few hours of free time she got to spend with her or anything, no nothing like that...

She felt like a nuisance at times, and every time she would ask herself if it was even worth it at this point.

And every time she asked herself this, the memory flashed in her mind, a brief second reminding her everything that lead them to be together...

...

...

It all came about after a failed heist on a dust warehouse. What was supposed to be a simple operation ended in disaster as security suddenly dropped on the dozen raiders. It was a simple trap that none of them were prepared for, nor were expecting. All the security force had to do was display public news about how a large shipment was being brought in for the city's Dust Shops by next week, and as expected, Cinder and her company bought the bait like a sucker.

She couldn't help it entirely, seeing how it was only her third time doing this sort of thing. She still had things to learn and skills to acquire, even henchmen were hard to come by these days. The White Fang were more than happy to assist in any heists that could help their own cause, but finding anyone with special gifts outside of foot soldiers were a dime a dozen.

The only useful person she had met a few years back was a man by the name of Roman Torchwick, and his strange silent assistant who simply went by the name Neo. And while the Roman himself could get on her nerves from time to time with his mannerisms and everything, she still found him a hundred times more useful than any of these soldiers, the very same who were either being captured or one of the only two so far to be gunned down.

Fortunately enough, not EVERYBODY was a fool at this time. A decent amount of White Fang members managed to escape in time before more security could show up and end up like the ten or so people who were already caught. At least Cinder didn't need to worry about any of them ratting out the group, all the White Fang members were much too loyal to betray their cause.

The ensuing run from the crime scene didn't end until cinder made a small distance through the woods away from the city. She didn't need to worry about anyone chasing her through these woods, not when it was dark and raining in a forest with grimm here and there, ones even she didn't have to worry about with her power.

Fire was a funny thing; set one grimm on fire and the other two or three would set off running, save for either one brave or stupid grimm that thought it had a better chance than the previous.

With the heist ending in a bust, and the coast finally clear of both grimm and humans, Cinder could finally catch her own breath as she took everything that went on today as a learning experience. Some heists were going to end in failure, that was undeniable. But at least this time she would be ready for it and cautious of any signs that made it look like a trap. She wouldn't make the same mistake twice, at least not without being ready for it again.

That was when it happened.

"Ahhhhhhh!" A simple cry of terror was the first thing Cinder heard after finally being able to relax.

It didn't surprise her in the slightest. Some fool went into the forest, got into trouble with the grimm, and was screaming in terror before the grimm would tear him or her to pieces. It was almost commonplace to someone like Cinder, having lived the life she had for years now. Hearing someone die within grimm-infested woods was almost a monthly thing by this point.

And just like each and every time, Cinder would just ignore it. It wasn't her problem, it wasn't her job to protect any of them. If they were stupid enough to enter the woods in the first place then it was all the more reason to let them die. Why let the human race suffer the stupidity of more people like this one? Killing them off was more of a favor to the rest of humanity than not! It would keep them from endangering the rest of the human race.

And who knows? Maybe there were other people in the forest, and this person proved a good distraction to let those people live too. People like her. People with higher priorities and goals in the world. She would simply smile to herself as her way of thanking them, glad useless people proved to have some importance in their life. And just like every other time, she would just walk away without a care in the world.

"Waaahhhhh-"

That was the only noise that did catch Cinder's attention, stopping mid-step as her eyes widened slightly.

A baby? Cinder thought to herself in surprise. Who would be stupid enough to bring a baby into the woods like this?! Cinder scoffed to herself as she continued walking away from the crying. The cold rain was enough to get on her nerves as is, so why deal with something else so unnecessary? For all she knew the baby could grow up to be just as stupid as the person who brought her to the woods. She'd be doing the world a favor by killing off two at once!

"Waaghghhh..."

Yet no matter how hard Cinder tried to block it out of her mind, she couldn't get the noise out of her head even when the cries paused in-between. Why was this sound so irritating to her? Why couldn't she stop grinding her teeth as she stomped away from the crying? Why wasn't she it going silent as even when the cries stopped?

...And why did her heart ache every time she heard it?

Was it something within the crying she found heart wrenching? Was it just because she couldn't picture the idea of letting a simple baby die at the teeth and claws of these monstrous grimm? What was it that caused her to stop suddenly as she looked back down the pathway?

Herself.

That one single word would sum up everything wrong she felt about this. Everything about this situation reminded her of herself. Not to say things played out in the exact same way, but everything that went on around it. How no one was there for the baby, how no one was paying attention to the ones who bullied her and picked on her... and how everyone else around her was just ignoring it, passing by her as if she didn't exist.

It was a painful reminder of herself, and one she never wanted to experience ever again, nor would she ever want someone else to experience the same life as her.

So maybe she should ignore the baby? At least if it dies now she won't have to suffer later. The baby's probably not even aware of what's happening at the time, and with something so small a grimm could eat her in one gulp! It would be quick and merciful! It wasn't her problem! She just had to keep walking away and forget everything that ever happened this night!

"... _Damn it_!" She cussed to herself as she ran down the path of the crying. She hated herself for what she was about to do, and knew she would continue hating herself for everything that happened after, but her heart wasn't giving her any choice.

With each step she ran the cries continued to grow louder, the rain barely noticeable with the speed she was making. If the baby was dead by the time she got there, then so be it. She tried and went back for it, and that's all she would have to worry about it from that point onward. She tried her best and failed, and even she wouldn't blame herself for it.

Even though she did waste a good minute of it. With every step that distanced herself from the crying that she had to retrace. Every single opposite thing she was doing from before that caused her to lose precious seconds from the possibly-dying baby.

These thoughts only wracked her heart more as she realized her selfishness. If the baby didn't survive tonight, then it would be on her. It would be on her, and no amount of convincing would tell her otherwise. Simply knowing this fact only caused more and more anger as she quickened her pace, beginning to hope that the young one was still alive by this point, her fear only growing as the sounds seemed to stop, dreading the worst.

But as fate would have it, no sooner had she left did she finally come across the scene causing so much anger and conflict. Hunched upon her knees lied an young woman, draped in a hooded cloak. The sight around her surprised the fiery girl herself, seeing the countless dead grimm around them that were dissipating slowly.

She could tell from the mere sight that they were all slain, slain by the young woman who was huddled up and presumably clutching her offspring between herself, and with the impressively large scythe scattered a few yards away from her... and the severed arm she used to wield it previously. The only thing the mother could do was using her weakened, bloodied, body to protect herself from the few remaining grimm that tore at it and her cloak.

Cinder felt almost warmth by the sheer sight of it, seeing a mother defending her child so much like this. But it didn't compare to the immense heat emanating from her hands, the very ones she suddenly threw at the grimm that surrounded the woman. The other grimm took notice of the burning grimm before charging the new person all at once- they all met the same fate as the one she roasted just seconds earlier.

The end result left her out of breath from exhaustion, with the combined running and the overdose of energy she used to burn the grimm alive. She didn't want any trace of them left after what they had done, not wanting a single-second more to pass for the grimm to torment their prey.

Thus she slowly walked on over. She hated herself, yelled at herself, and fumed at herself for praying that the young infant was still alive. She shouldn't be having such thoughts, not someone like her.

It was only while she did this did she finally realize the scene before her; here kneeled a huntress, a highly skilled, highly trained warrior, who dedicated their lives to hunting the grimm. In some respects, they were guardians, heroes who people looked up to. To others like Cinder, they were nothing but false images and fakers, people who deserved to be burned away to ash as nothing more than food for the maggots.

But to the one kneeling before her, the one who slowly raised her head just enough for Cinder to see her mouth, she saw a mother. A bright, beautiful, angelic mother, who did everything in her power to keep her innocent baby girl alive, the very same that thankfully started to cry again.

Upon examining where the remains of the grimm used to be, she saw more of the scene that explained the huntress's story. She could see a simple basket, with several pieces of food and medicine in the basket. It was after further examining the contents that she realized the medicine wasn't for the mother, but for the baby. The baby's small cough only confirmed the details, causing Cinder's heart to ache only worse.

The person wasn't an idiot. She wasn't some stupid gullible human that deserved to die like the rest, even if she was a huntress. She was a mother. A loving and caring mother who went about trying to get medicine for her infant daughter. The realization of this detail only hurt Cinder more, wondering if she could've saved the dying mother if she had ran back sooner.

Part of her hoped not. Not out of spite or pity, but out of sorrow for her own actions. Judging by the scream that started this nightmare for herself, she assumed the scream occurred after the mother suddenly lost her arm, seeing the blood soaked ground beneath her still fresh.

With the small amount of strength the woman had remaining, she slowly stretched her left arm out, revealing the small bundle of joy she was so intent on protecting. Kneeling down to inspect the young infant, swaddled in red linen, was the crying baby that drew Cinder to save her. She had small black hair, with very faint red tips at the end of it. And past the small tears in her eyes, for the few seconds she could make out, she saw silver coloring, a rare trait which a miniscule few have.

"Ru...by..." The single utterance from the woman's lips snapped Cinder out of her sudden trance as the woman suddenly collapsed to her side. She barely had the time to collect the young infant before her mother fell over, landing in the soft mud as she dropped to her side.

Cinder could only watch in mere silence as she looked at the young mother. There wasn't any movement, breathing, not even a twitch. Her mother had passed from this life and onto the next, in a way that even Cinder could compliment of being proud of. As much as it hurt to admit it, she had truly felt remorse for the young mother, enough to make a single tear roll down her face along the endless rain.

The question was, what should she do with her now? Leave her on someone's doorstep? Try to find any of her possible relatives that possibly don't exist? She doesn't even know who the young mother is, let alone if she had any siblings that could be Ruby's uncles or aunts.

She needed to think of a plan quickly as well. She couldn't keep standing out in the rain like this, especially with the grimm lurking about. None of them would be much of a challenge for her, but if she tried to fight while looking out for the infant like her mother had, they could both end up suffering the same fate.

That would irritate her the most out of all of this.

And even then, she couldn't bring herself to imagine doing any of this. It was possibly her own fault that the mother died, that Ruby would go on without a real mother to guide her for the rest of her life. It wouldn't hurt Cinder so much if it wasn't for the fact Ruby's mother did appear to be a sweet and genuine caring soul. Even now Cinder was cursing to herself about how she could've avoided all of this if she just took a few seconds to react sooner, to make up her mind and save the two of them.

Still, even that might've been pushing it. If her mother had died from the blood loss of her severed arm alone then there was nothing Cinder could've done about it. She wasn't aware of the two of them until after she screamed, so there's no telling it was Cinder's fault anyway.

Despite all this, Cinder simply gazed down at the small charge. The one little girl who drove Cinder to come and help these two in the end. While she might not have had much to care for a baby at that time, or anything to provide the baby with, save anything left in the mother's basket, she did at least have a name.

"Ruby..."

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...

No matter how long the event played in her head, the scene was over in a second in reality. Having changed and cleaned the baby, burning away the waste with her embers, and redressing her in her dark-red footed sleeper. It was the same routine she had to deal with day in and day out. If it wasn't for a diaper change, it was to feed her. At the worse of times, it was both.

Often on, it wasn't even for just that. Sometimes she just cried until Cinder appeared to calm her down. In some respects it made Cinder's heart tingle, seeing the infant cry until Cinder herself showed up, but then again that could just be the joy she herself gets when the crying finally ends.

And every time, it would end the same way with Cinder easing herself back into bed with Ruby in her arms, whether crying or giggling to her, until she could rock her back to sleep. She was used to leaning against the board of her bed, so it didn't even bother her with how rickety it was these days.

One little trick she did learn over time was that Ruby wasn't scared of her, or more importantly her fire. With a simple click of her fingers, she could make a small candlelight-size of fire grow from her fingertips, waving it around the sniffling girl. Like most times, the girl's expression changed from sniffling to a curious stare of intrigue and wonder. And like those times, after waving it in front of the young Ruby, she would suddenly start giggling as she would attempt to catch the twirling flame.

"Geheheh!" Ruby giggled, waving her arms to the light.

It always amused Cinder a bit as she watched the small girl attempt to grab the small light. It always baffled Cinder how someone so innocent and young could be so attracted and excited about something so dangerous. She didn't find it something to be scared of, a thing that should be extinguished and snuffed out. She found it as something wonderful to play with, something that kept her warm and safe.

Perhaps that was why Cinder grew so attached to the young Ruby. Unlike the many others who were intimidated at the mere sight of her for the first time, Ruby would always giggle, wanting more of whatever it had to offer.

She found it even more amusing every time Ruby would manage to grab her finger. Before she could pull the fire toward herself, Cinder would always dissipate it, leaving a baffled and surprised look on the infant's face, and causing Cinder to chuckle to herself. And before the baby to start sniffling and crying again, she always sprouted a match on her pinkie, being far enough away to surprise the young girl and giving Cinder enough time to pull her hand away whenever she let go of Cinder's finger.

"Hmm hm hmmmm..." Cinder slowly started to hum rhythmically. As interesting as it would be to see how long she could keep this game going, it was still way early in the morning, and both of them needed their sleep.

Fortunately, getting the young infant to sleep was never the hard part of her job. It took awhile at first to find ways to get the baby Ruby to sleep, with her singing always being overshadowed by the baby's crying or laughing, and a mobile being more of an attraction for Ruby than something to put her to sleep. But after some time, she managed to find the right way to get her to sleep, and after some time, perfected it to get Ruby asleep within minutes.

" _Awwwhhhhnnn_..."

That was usually the very first thing Cinder would always hear before Ruby slowly closed her eyes. It was cute, Cinder could never deny that. And the sound of it was enough to trigger Cinder to start getting sleepy. She always watched at first just to make sure she was asleep.

The one time she didn't resulted in Ruby almost squirming out of her arms and dropping to the ground, being grabbed at the last second by the panicking Cinder. That didn't keep Ruby from crying for the rest of the morning, nights if she was really unlucky. Since then Cinder hasn't gone a night without making sure Ruby fell asleep first if she was holding her.

But tonight of all nights, Ruby uttered something else that Cinder had never heard before.

"Mama..." She muttered softly. Cinder's eyes widened in shock as her jaw gaped open.

She couldn't tell if she was just dreaming it briefly as she nearly fell asleep. Maybe it was just her imagination playing tricks on her? That had to be it, clearly the stress was just getting to her!

...Yet, whether it was a complete mistake, a hallucination, or reality, some miniscule part of her prayed. She prayed that it was real and smiled as she did. Her eyes nearly twitched as she almost let out a tear, smiling down at her current bundle of joy.

It was times like these that made it all worth it.

With a small smile, she kissed her baby's forehead as she uttered softly,

"Goodnight, my little Fire Flower..."

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 **Hooftah, feels good to be writing again folks! Like I said, I know it's not much compared to my usual works, and the writing might seem a bit off to usual, but again, it's been nearly 6 months on my end, so I need to slowly ease my way back to writing again.**

 **Again, this was a tribute to the "Mama Cinder" Universe that a surprising amount of people seem to support! Let me know if you guys want me to continue this- if no, then this will just be a standalone oneshot. If yes, then I'll continue more on this, cause honestly, I had fun writing this AU-Rwby Fic ^^. Let me know if there's any details I should know about this universe too, and expect more possible goodness in the future chapters (if you guys want more)!**

 **Like and Review ^^!**


	2. The Morning Routine

A/N: Hiyo! So with the abundance of GRAND feedback I've been getting, here's the second part to what used to be this oneshot-series ^^ As always, if anyone has any feedback for ideas for this series, it would be greatly appreciated!

Enjoy!

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* _ **Rrrrrrrrnnnnnnnhhhhhhh-**_ *

"Huff..." Cinder sighed as she slowly awoke, back still against the wall of the bed like the previous night.

If there was one thing she hated waking up to, it was the sound of that annoying horn blaring off every morning. It wasn't exactly anything she could control, seeing how it wasn't even coming from their warehouse. If there was one thing her and her organization had to get used to, living in the numerous warehouses, it was hearing that annoying horn going off from the nearby factories, indicating that work was starting.

It's not like they could lodge a complaint or anything, seeing how the warehouse they were occupying was supposed to be abandoned to begin with. Telling the police "hey, the factory right next to the warehouse we're secretly living in is making too much noise" didn't seem like the best of ideas at the time.

It actually was hard enough keeping the organization going with all the members moving about the district. Finding time to pull off heists and schemes, scheduling when to actually pull off said heists, figuring out how to escort the targets of those schemes (whether they be items or people of interest) back to the warehouse without being spotted, there were too many annoying factors to it.

At least, for Cinder that is, she always had the pleasure of waking up with Ruby in her arms-

"Ruby?" Cinder blinked as she tried to focus her vision again.

There were two things that always worried Cinder these days, minus anything related to the organization of course. The first was hearing Ruby crying. Never knowing what she was crying from or what was causing her to cry in the first place, there were too many issues with the unknown.

The second issue was never knowing where Ruby was. On days where she was always busy, unable to keep an eye on Ruby for long periods of time, the thought of her being somewhere she didn't know made her tense. She could still go about her day as normal, but it would never feel right until she returned to her little joy each and every day.

Perhaps it was an unwanted side-effect from growing so attached to the little one, but it's not one she regretted. Ruby was one of the few things in the world that warmed her heart in ways her own fire couldn't. It was soft and calming like an endless breeze through her fingertips. It eased her very soul whenever she saw Ruby smile, feeling as if everything was alright with the world.

Yet she still despised it all the same. She didn't want this kind of feeling flowing through her all the time. She didn't want any form of attachment to her baby that could be used against her. It gave her a weakness, a hinderance.

She was both a treasure and a curse to her.

And a small bundle curled up under the covers of Cinder's bed. The fiery witch couldn't help but smirk to herself silently as she saw the bundle move.

"Gee, wherever did my little Ruby go?" She asked herself aloud.

"Teheheh..." Cinder had to hold back a brief chuckle she felt creeping up as she heard this tiny laugh. It only confirmed what she already knew, but there was no problem in playing along.

"Did she turn invisible? Or maybe into a ghost?" As Cinder continued to joke, she took note of the small lump shaking from laughter, obviously trying to silence herself as to not give away her hiding spot. "I guess she must really be gone..."

That did it for her.

"Boo!" Ruby suddenly squealed as she jumped from under the covers with her arms stretched out like a monster.

"Ahh!" Cinder faked a scream, placing a hand over her chest pretending to be terrified.

"Hehehehe, scawed you!" The small three-and-a-half year old deemed with a lisp. Dressed in her common PJs, which consisted of just a large black shirt that went down to her ankles, the young toddler jumped up and down in bed while holding Cinder's arm, shaking her.

This was the daily routine Cinder was greeted with every couple months that Ruby slept in her bed. After the few years of raising the young girl, many changes were made around the warehouse. A few overly successful heists resulted in being able to afford more clothing for the little girl, and an actual small bed after Ruby was too old for her crib, even if still big enough for it.

Getting Ruby to talk was a bigger challenge for Ruby to overcome. Much to her delight, she wasn't hallucinating the first time Ruby called her "mama". Since then she heard it at least several times a week, sometimes even saying "mommy" to her delight.

Her second favorite word to follow this was "no", and boy did it show. Whether it was whenever Cinder tried to feed her, change her, or whenever Cinder was busy with another henchman, Ruby would always point to him or her and address them as "no". And while it made every henchman feel awkward after that, Cinder couldn't help but laugh to herself each and every time.

Managing Ruby during the terrible two's was another pain to deal with as she started walking more often. It wasn't the idea of her walking that troubled her, farm from it. She enjoyed coming back from work everyday and seeing the small two-year-old waddling up to her and hugging her legs. It was both their favorite time of the day as they got to see each other after what felt like forever, and nothing brightened Cinder's mood more than seeing Ruby run up to her.

What DID trouble Cinder more was everything Ruby could get into on her own two feet. Luckily, she wasn't much of a grower at the time, only growing a couple inches for the last two years she's been here. However that didn't stop her from getting into all sorts of trouble from wandering around the warehouse, almost falling down the stairs several times over, granted this was a problem back when she even learned to crawl, and not to mention everything she could get her hands on!

Cinder had no greater fear than watching a two year old find a gun lying around a warehouse. As opposed to Ruby herself, she scolded the moron who was dumb enough to leave their gun lying around in the first place! The sight of Cinder angry and yelling at someone managed to scare Ruby into a crying fit anyway, but it wasn't as bad as it would've been if Cinder disciplined her instead.

Since then members of the White Fang had made it a priority to never leave their guns lying around again. Cinder assured them that the next one Ruby got her hands on wouldn't be left with just a burnt hand like the first one.

By the time Ruby was old enough for her own bed, they had a complete room set up for Ruby herself, one which was... never used anyway. Almost every night Ruby would wander the warehouse area until she either got lost and cried till Cinder found her, or make her way to Cinder's room crying about scary monsters in the dark.

She couldn't be blamed when it came to getting lost constantly. Having to change warehouses also met having to change rooms at an almost constant rate, and the locations of said rooms too. In fact her bed didn't consist of anything more than the mattress alone and a few other pieces of furniture like chairs and tables, and not to mention toys. Her clothes were always kept within the moving boxes as they never stayed in one place for anything more than three weeks at most.

At least the diapers were always easier to carry around since they already came in bags.

Speaking of monsters in the dark, she wasn't wrong in the slightest about this either.

One thing that was transported every now and then within the warehouse were the occasional grimm. With such a young toddler around the warehouse, they always had to change locations whenever they needed to ship a grimm to the current one. It was hard enough keeping the grimm in the warehouse under control since they always reacted to negative emotions, and with a baby around the warehouse there were negative on an almost daily basis.

There were a few rare occurrences Ruby actually saw the caged Grimm as Cinder and her followers changed locations, nearly crying each time one of those Grimm roared angrily and tried breaking out from the sight of her. If it wasn't for Cinder's soothing tone and warm presence Ruby always felt, she would break down crying each time.

And all of this before she even reached the age of 3!

With another small chuckle to herself, as she inched her arms towards the anticipating girl. "Well you certainly did you little MONSTER!"

"Eep-!" With a sudden shriek, Ruby found herself powerless to fight back against the menacing wrath of the claws! The dreaded monsters connected to Cinder that would tickle her senselessly without mercy! There was no safety from such terrifying things, only pray that they would leave her alone after some time had passed.

It were these very monsters that Ruby feared the most these days. The black scary monsters were scary, but they were tolerable as long as she was in mommy's arms. But what was she to do when the monsters were her arms?! There was no safety from such terrifying monsters!

"You're mine little red! Alllll miiiiine!" Cinder hissed playfully as she pulled Ruby closer into tickling.

"Little Red" was a bit of a nickname she and most of her subordinates usually call her from time to time. Aside from being named after the red linen Cinder first found Ruby in when she was a baby, the red tints on the tips of her hair begun to stand out more. While they still weren't enough to be noticeable at a distance, they were definitely unique all on their own.

On top of that, it was also her favorite color, black being second. It made Cinder wonder if that was another reason Ruby grew so attached to her so easily, if it was just her outfit that Ruby was naturally drawn to. It would make sense when Ruby was a baby, but she was sure there was something a little more to that.

She hoped at least.

And as much as she wished to continue these games, she had more pressing matters to attend to. Pressing, but never more important.

"Are you wet?" Cinder asked curiously as she finally stood Ruby up again.

"Ummm." The instant look of worry on Ruby's face as she looked down while nibbling her finger was the only answer she needed. Lifting up Ruby's long shirt, her guess was answered as she saw the faded stars on Ruby's diaper- I mean "pull-up".

Potty training was one of the biggest issues to deal with while raising Ruby. On the plus side, Ruby was surprisingly a quick learner. By the time she was three, she was finally able to work up to Pull-ups, only having a wetting accident every few weeks, and a more severe accident after a guard scared her enough for drawing on his schematics for a future heist.

Curiously, the same guard happened to burst into flames mysteriously after Cinder found out what happened, only fortunate enough that it lasted for just a mere minute.

The problem came from having the amount of time to spend potty training Ruby. She would often have up to two, maybe three hours a day with her little girl on average, rarely anything more than five hours to herself that she would spend with her. And when that time was just spent playing with her, that pretty much limited potty-training time to mere minutes a day.

However, when it came to the nights, they were a little harder for the young toddler to train for. She could never control herself at night, which was understandable for any three year old, but it always bothered Ruby. Most nights she would wake up wet, other nights sometimes more. Eventually Cinder decided it would be best to just keep her in diapers at night until she gained more control.

On the bright side, she has at least been having accidents less and less. It was enough to be just fine for Cinder, but she also had a habit of frowning slightly when Ruby did wake up wet or worse. And the look on her face always bothered Ruby more than whatever state she was in in the morning.

Not so much for herself, but whenever she saw Cinder's concerned face regarding it. She never liked seeing her mother sad or angry about something, which is something Cinder picked up on shortly after she turned 3.

She did her best to always look cheerful around Ruby, even if the day was going horribly or she was discussing something with another White Fang member while Ruby was near. But there were those natural days where she just couldn't help but be angry about something, a habit Cinder worked daily on breaking herself.

"It's alright sweetie, I don't mind." Cinder assured as she lifted Ruby off the bed. Tying the sash around her red robe, she softly patted Ruby's head as they made their way to the bathroom for their morning bath.

If there was one thing Ruby did love doing, it was playing with her mother. If there was one thing she loved almost as much, it was playing with the bubbles in the tub while they bathed together. And the excited look on Ruby's face as she waited for her mother to undress her further supported this.

Just like every time too, Cinder joined in as she washed herself along with the cheerful toddler. The water was always just high enough to reach Ruby's knees and for Cinder to gather enough to and pour over her girl as she scrubbed the both of them. It was always a fun show for Cinder to just watch the slightly-red head gather as many bubbles as she could and throw them all about.

Today of all days, she watched Ruby excitedly gather a large bundle of bubbles together. Cinder could only grin curiously as the seconds passed, watching as the 3 year old eventually started rubbing the bubbles over her face before jumping as she turned around.

"Raaah! I'mma G'imm!" Ruby growled innocently. Even Cinder couldn't help but burst with small fits of laughter at this. It wasn't so much from Ruby pretending to be a monster, but the fact she was imitating one at all.

Whenever it came to the Grimm, Ruby was always terrified. They were scary, they sounded scary, they acted scary, just scary all around. But whenever Cinder was around, she would always lose all fear of the Grimm and act like they were no big deal. Better yet, she would actually love to play pretend by acting like a Grimm, and trying to scare her mother. And it worked every time!

...At least to her, it worked.

"Hmm? Where did this Grimm come from?" The young woman teased as she poured water over Ruby's face. With the water clearing away the suds, she waited for Ruby to stop shaking her head as she cleared the water out of her face, chuckling again as Ruby giggled again.

"It's meee!" Ruby cheered excitedly.

"Oh, it was just Ruby." Cinder feigned ignorance.

These were the moments that Cinder cherished the most. Just being able to spend time with her little one were moments that she wanted to repeat time and time again. Even if behind all this Cinder had hidden agendas, even if there was a day where Ruby herself would get wrapped up in all this crime and indecency, she wanted to make these particular moments last. She wanted nothing more than to spend time with her little treasure and feel like she had an actual family.

The cute little tender moment the two were sharing was cut short though as the door suddenly creaked open. Normally, whoever interrupted her little bonding time with Ruby would end up with a fireball to their face for not knocking beforehand. If they ever dropped in on them in the bathroom, they would find their head on fire for a few seconds.

And on the occasional chance someone opened the door too fast, smacked Ruby in the face and made her cry? They found it hard to walk with a broken leg for the next month.

Luckily no one ever repeated the mistake after the first time.

But there were times certain emergencies would spring up, which usually resulted in someone needing to get to Cinder in a hurry. And after the last dozen times someone usually got injured for doing this, there was only one person who would usually drop in on them so suddenly.

"Sissy Ne-Ne!" Ruby cheered excitedly as she climbed herself out of the tub, running out in the nude as she ran towards the older person.

The person titled "Sissy Ne-Ne" was the name Ruby had given Roman's assistant, Neo, more accurately Neopolitan. Out of all the people within the organization, Neo was Ruby's favorite person, second only to her mother, having even given her the name "Sissy Ne-Ne" herself. Luckily for Ruby, Neo didn't seem to mind or argue with this at all!

At least that was how it appeared to Ruby herself. She couldn't comprehend the idea of why someone couldn't talk like Neo. She always thought she just went with whatever Ruby said, and Neo never seemed to correct her on this.

Again, because she couldn't.

She was also among one of Cinder's more favorite people, at least when it came to watching over Ruby. During the years whenever Cinder was gone for periods of time, sometimes even days, Neo was the one to watch over the young baby Ruby and care for her while she was away. She was basically Ruby's Nanny half the time.

Naturally, at first, the young teen was against this idea and the disgusting job of feeding her and changing her day after day that came with raising a baby. She couldn't argue about anything related to the job even if she wanted to, given the whole silence thing. She almost wanted to quit the job at times and just go out on her own. Cinder always said she had the option, but she shouldn't show her face again if she ever wanted to come back.

So basically she didn't have a choice. Even if she did, she was too loyal to Roman, and wouldn't ever leave his side. Not to mention the fact she wouldn't be able to tell if he would suffer because of her if she did end up leaving forever.

But as time went on, Neo slowly grew attached to the young girl. With every birthday that came about, with the birthdays being on the day Cinder found Ruby, Neo became more of a sisterly figure to the young girl. She was the only other person Ruby would run up to and hug at their legs, and the only person Ruby was excited to see when Cinder wasn't around. Even if she didn't speak, she could always play with Ruby as a baby, sleep in the same room when Cinder was gone for the night, and even taught Ruby how to read a little!

Let's repeat that: Neo taught Ruby some reading.

It was the biggest mystery Cinder ever met in her life, and would possibly never be answered to her. It was never anything complicated, just simple things here and there. Ruby knew what certain words were like apples and such things. Simple things that the 3 year old didn't fully understand.

And to say the small child didn't grow on Ruby either also would've been inaccurate. She grew very attached to the young child as time went by .Sure, there were still some things that disgusted her when it came to raising, like dealing with her diapers at night and when she was younger, but even with that she enjoyed the bonding time they continued to have. She didn't even mind Ruby calling her "big sister" anymore.

In fact, she rather enjoyed it. Even when Ruby was hugging her in her birthday suit, and was still soaking wet, she found it cute all the same.

At the same time, it also troubled Cinder herself. If someone barged in on them at a time like this, it was important. If Neo was the one the White Fang members felt necessary to do it, it was incredibly important. Still maintaining a calming demeanor as she exited the tub, Cinder casually spoke. "Well good morning, Neo. What brings you here?"

She wasn't expecting to hear anything from the young adult as she pulled herself out of the tub, slipping her bathrobe on once more. As with most of Neo's responses, it came from her notebook in written responses. Unlike most replies, however, she instead drew a symbol on the page, showing it to the fire-starter herself.

To Ruby's curiosity, she tilted her head at the sight of her mother looking surprised. Whenever she was surprised, it was always amusing seeing what sort of thing she did immediately after from saying something funny, or doing something Ruby found funny since she didn't understand.

"The White Fang?" Cinder questioned as she picked up Ruby, wrapping her in a towel as she began to dry her off. A simple nod from Neo was all that she needed. "Is their leader already here?" Ruby could faintly make out Cinder saying, most of the sound being muffled from the towel drying around Ruby's ears. Neo nodded again.

The meeting was supposed to be for a bit of a more personal exchange, to meet face to face, leader to leader, and discuss the plans of the next heist in person. It was supposed to be a sign of respect to one another as they got to know one another.

If things didn't work out, the leader of the White Fang would cut off some support he was constantly sending to Cinder and her operations. If things went smoothly, however, the support could potentially triple. There would be more investments that the White Fang would send for better equipment, there would be more followers being sent to help Cinder's side of the forces, and there would be more resources to gain that they didn't have access to already- like someone within the security force that could be their inside man.

It was a meeting that needed to go well for their operations to continue, especially if they were going to continue the way things were now. It was becoming more expensive of late to maintain their operations than preform new ones altogether. If they didn't get any more funding, they would have to consider moving operations again, not just to another abandoned place, but a new city entirely. And with how many people there were in their current operations, moving to an entirely new city without drawing attention to themselves would've been all but impossible. She had to think of something to convince the leader to support their operations more.

She was so in thought she didn't even notice as Ruby's head popped out of the towel, giving her mother a look of confusion. "Weeder?" She lisped curiously.

Cinder hesitantly looked at Ruby with calm smile. She wasn't expecting this meeting to happen anytime today, it was supposed to go on in the afternoon tomorrow. Otherwise she would've already prepared herself for the day before they got here. Even then, she would've had until the afternoon to prepare herself, so everything about the sudden meeting was surprising to her.

Still, it wasn't that much of a worry for Cinder, they would just have to move up the schedule a day earlier. In addition, she would also get to reveal another surprise to her sweet little Ruby today. As a matter of fact, it might be the one little stepping stone she needed to get the White Fang Leader's approval.

"Guess what sweetie, you get to meet a new friend today."

"A fwiend?"

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Hooooof boyo! Another chapter down the drain ^^. The writing here may be a little different compared to the first one, but considering that one was supposed to be more drama/family based, it's only expected.

Anyway like and review if you like the chapter and if you'd like to see more future chapters. And post in the comments if you have an idea for a chapter! At the time, Ruby's age through this AU range from her one-year-old self to six years old; it might go past this to present time, but only depending on the amount of feedback and support I get for this.

Either way send your ideas in reviews and let me know how you liked each chapter! The more feedback = more/faster chapters ^^!


	3. The Kitty Cat Went Hello

**A/N: ...ummmmmmmmmm...Taco!...because why not!...Errr I'm running out of things to say in these descriptions XP. The good news though people; I've been getting more and more inspiration and mojo from writing these fanfics. I don't want to get hopes up that much but I think I may return to writing my Danganronpa fic soon :D!**

 **But until then, please continue the daily life of Cinder and Ruby.**

 **Enjoy!**

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"Mmmh..." Ruby mumbled frightened as she hugged behind her mother's leg, holding it tightly. She couldn't help but nibble on her thumb as she stared.

Ruby had no idea what was going on at this time.

Before her stood several robbed figures, each of whom were standing behind two other figures, both of which terrified the young three-and-a-half-year-old. It wasn't just the fact these people were complete strangers to Ruby, but the fact these were the first people Ruby ever met before that wasn't one of the few people Ruby actually knew, or had were a White Fang member that had their face covered by their mask.

It wasn't too surprising, living within warehouses most of her life. The only time Ruby ever did go outside was one time when she was a baby, a time she naturally didn't remember. She doesn't know entirely why she was sick or from what, all she did know is that mommy had to take her to the doctor for a check-up. Luckily it wasn't anything more than a cold the doctor had medicine for.

Outside of that, Ruby has no recollection of ever being outside the warehouse. Her mother always told her never to go outside the warehouse without her, and considering she was working all the time, Ruby never went outside. So meeting any new people without their face covered up was a new experience for her.

The first person who was kneeled at the moment was a strange woman with yellow eyes. She wore a long black hakama that ran down to her feet and long sleeves. The cuffs of her shirt's neck and sleeves had a pretty yellow gold color to them. Underneath her hakama Ruby could clearly make out some long white shirt, fashioned like an inner robe.

She did appear to be a nice person, but Ruby was still scared of her all the same for certain reasons. And she wasn't even the most terrifying of the two main figures.

The second person was a large husky man who also had black hair. He had a black thin hair that ran across his chin where his beard was, as well as a large, thin, blotch of hair over his exposed chest. The design of his outfit was similar in design of the other person, but very different.

For starters, he only wore a large coat over his torso, unlike the woman who had an inner white robe. He also appeared to have a sash across his waist that exposed an extremely large silver buckle, naturally representing some sign of honor or wealth. He also had large silver spaulders on his shoulders that stretched down his chest, connecting together to keep his coat together. On top of that, he also had black leather boots that touched the tips of his beige pants.

He was the more terrifying figure between the two them, having his fists at his side with a grin.

But above all, the one thing that stood out to Ruby were the strange cat eats both of them seemed to have. It was so bizarre looking to Ruby, having never experienced something so strange before. They looked just like the kitty ears Ruby saw in the picture books Neo showed her, but not once had she ever seen actual people with them. They had regular ears too, but that only made it more strange than it did explain things.

As for the rest of their followers, they were dressed in strange robed garbs colored in black and white. They had a very peculiar red hood that covered their heads and connected under their necks. Some of them also had strange animal ears, most of which Ruby didn't recognize, but that was mostly because she was too preoccupied from looking at the scary two people in front of her.

"You have a fine young one there, mam." The bulky man complimented with a proud grin.

"Thank you," Cinder replied, patting Ruby's shivering head, "this is my daughter, Ruby Fall."

Technically, it wasn't a lie. She was Cinder's personal joy, and has been ever since she adopted her. The small three year old, dressed in her pink pull-ups, black shortalls, and red shirt, there wasn't a single aspect about her that Cinder didn't love. If anything, every detail of Ruby was another factor to love, even her shyness.

"Ruby Fall...what an adorable name!" The kneeling woman stated, reaching her hand gently towards her. "Hello there little one, my names Kali-"

"Mmmh!" Ruby teared up as she shut her eyes tightly, pressing her face into her mother's leg. Cinder couldn't help but scratch her chin with an embarrassed smile on her face.

"She uh... She's very shy." She added. Something that was also true. She couldn't afford to let Ruby out of the warehouse for numerous reasons, security and secrecy being the primary one. On top of that, Cinder always had a constant fear of someone related to her finding out who she was. She doubted that would ever happen, but it was better safe than sorry.

Surprisingly, this simple comment caused the large man to burst out laughing. "Hahaha, ours used to be too, but now we can't keep her out of trouble!" He said proudly, turning his head. "Speaking of which, where are you you little bugger? C'mere!" The large man began reaching his arms behind his back as he tried pulling something off.

"Hehehe!" A strange giggling caught the others' attention, only one of them not knowing who it belonged to.

Even Cinder was curious as she began hearing some scraping noise from something moving behind him, though knew what to expect. It was supposed to be the surprise she had for Ruby.

"Hello!" A small figure suddenly greeted as she popped up from behind the man's shoulder. The two parents looked to their own kid as she hopped from the big man's shoulder, flipping the air before landing perfectly on her feet, hands stretched side to side for balance.

"Come say hello, dear." Kali requested as she gestured her daughter over. Ruby opened one of her eyes nervously as she looked upon the mysterious girl.

Just like her two seeming parents, she had those strange cat ears like the parents apparently had. However, one interesting difference was that she appeared to have a small black tail behind her. Her clothes were similar to that of her parents as she had a simple white shirt on with a simple green flower decoration on the front of it and black pants. It matched her black hair and shoes perfectly, all of which brought out the yellow in her eyes.

She looked more like the kitties from her book than her parents did.

"Hi! I'm Blake." The girl said with brief salute. She waited for few brief seconds for any response from the toddler, eventually tilting her head curiously at the silence. "Can she talk?" She asked Cinder looking up at her.

"It's ok, sweetie." Cinder comforted Ruby, kneeling down to her. Unsurprisingly Ruby quickly threw her arms around Cinder's neck, still nibbling on her thumb as she watched the older cat girl. "Tell them your name."

It also might've been a height difference that scared Ruby the most. She was after all the shortest person out of everybody there, and being introduced to so many new people at once couldn't be easy. Even compared to the five, possibly six-year-old standing before her, Blake had a couple 4 to 5 inches over her.

"Wu...Wuby.." Ruby lisped again.

"Wuby?" Blake repeated in confusion.

'Hmhm, she means Ruby." Cinder corrected.

Out of the many people in this group, only Roman Torchwick found the situation slightly weird.

When it came to Roman, he never bothered with Ruby, nor did Cinder truly want Roman around Ruby. It wasn't actually anything towards him, he actually watched over Ruby just fine a couple times in the past. Even as a baby Ruby didn't seem to have any problem with the things he had to do, the things he was in charge of before he "promoted" Neo to official Nanny.

He just didn't really want anything to do with her, literally. He had a business to run around here, too many people to meet between White Fang members and other henchmen. Out of all the people running the organization, he couldn't waste any of his time watching a baby.

It's not to say he didn't feel anything for her, of course. He found her cute, sometimes funny. It was mostly just an order of business to him.

Speaking of business, that's exactly what this awkward situation looked like. This wasn't supposed to be some family reunion thing, they were supposed to discuss their relationship in hopes for more support from the White Fang. This meeting could literally make or brake their business at this time.

Granted the current mood of the setting was definitely helping the mood, but they still had actual business to settle and stuff to go over first.

And Neo, as always, was just the calm, simple, observer who watched the scene from behind Cinder, finding Ruby's interaction with another little girl cute.

As much as Cinder wanted to continue this cute little display, she knew they had orders to discuss. All she needed to do now was find something to keep the kids occupied. "Now Ruby, why don't you go with Blake and Neo and go make some cookies in the kitchen?"

"Cookies?" That instantly caught Ruby's attention.

If there was one word Ruby loved the most, it was cookies. The absolute greatest thing ever invented in the entire world of snacks! It was a beautiful treasure that kings, pirates, and monsters would always fight over just to take a tasty bite out of! Nobody could argue against the power of the almighty cookie, and no one could resist it's tasty goodness! It was the food of the gods!

Or at least that's how Ruby felt about it.

"Oooh! I love cookies!" Blake squealed in delight. Before Ruby knew it, Blake was throwing her over her back and piggyback-riding her in a random direction. "Let's go!"

"Whoooa!" Ruby yelped in fright as she was suddenly taken away from the group. Neo panicked as she quickly chased after the two. It didn't matter how perky or thrilled a little cat girl was to play with her new friend, it didn't help either of them if they didn't know where the Kitchen was.

"Hahaha, you got to admire their spirit." Ghira said with a hearty laugh.

"Indeed." Cinder agreed with a smile. "Now, I believe we came here to discuss more business?" Cinder commented as she walked the guests to the meeting table.

"We have a lot of plans we'd like to discuss that would benefit the both of us." Roman added, bringing over several schematics and papers.

"I agree, but first," Ghira clicked his fingers as he ordered several of his subjects towards the table, "let's have a toast."

Cinder and Roman watched as the several figures began bringing simple tea mugs to each of them, followed by a large white kettle with a red flower design on it. Cinder knew how it was a custom from Menagerie, the town Kali and Ghira Belladonna were from, as a sign of respect. To dismay it would be considered a sign of rudeness, something they couldn't afford to display during such an important meeting.

It also was a bit of a refresher for Cinder and Roman. Seeing how the meeting had to start up early, most of the organization barely had time to even have coffee this morning. Plus the green tea did smell pretty good so there was no arguing with that detail either.

With each of the cups filled, the two faunas lifted their cups in respect. Cinder and Roman quickly followed suit as they smiled back to the two as well.

"To family!" The parents said in unison.

"To family." Cinder replied with a nod.

"Yeah, family, whoo hoo." Roman mumbled after, sipping the tea in synch with the other 4 drinkers.

It was a bit awkward for Cinder of all people to be saluting about family of all things. Except for Ruby, she didn't view much of anyone else within the organization as actual family. Allies was the better term, friends perhaps. But like Roman, she viewed them as simple workers, all working together to reach the same goal to reach similar ideals.

But like everything else, they needed to keep up the act to reach the Belladonnas' good side, as well as that of the remaining White Fang members. There was no way the White Fang, whether those the Belladonnas or those currently in their regime, would continue supporting the group as loyally should this meeting go awry.

"By the way, if you don't mind me asking, where exactly is Ruby's father?" Kali questioned.

"Hurk!" The flaming witch nearly choked as she let out a few coughs, the tea almost going down the wrong pipe. Even Roman's eyes briefly widened as he lowered the tip of his hat, trying to hide his concerning expression from the two parents.

"Ci-Cinder... she um...I mean her husband... Eh hem." Roman paused briefly as he cleared his throat. "You see her husband-"

Roman silenced himself as Cinder held up her hand telling him to stop. "No, Roman, it's alright." She stated, closing her eyes as she gently set the tea town. "They deserve to know the truth."

If it wasn't for the fact Roman was sure Cinder had something in mind here, Roman would've jumped from the sheer amount of worry that was brought about. Was she really going to tell them everything about Ruby? Was she going to confess about how she was just an orphan Cinder adopted?! Why not just tell them everything else while she was at it, like how they're currently just trying to get on the family's good side! They were about to be direct with everything else, they might as well!

"You see Ruby's father..." Cinder lowered her head down for effect. "Ruby's father was killed by the grimm as he was gathering medicine for her."

All three of them were surprised at once, with Roman being the only one not to actually show it. The two parents were instantly saddened to hear such dreaded news, especially seeing how they brought it up themselves.

Roman on the other hand was relieved by this. A huge wave of stress left his body as he laid back in his chair. For a moment there he thought Cinder was going to drop the ball. It wouldn't have been that big of a deal if she did actually. Thinking more about it they just would've explained how they were watching over Ruby ever since they took her in as a baby. The parents might've actually been more touched by that in the long run.

Regardless though, Cinder appeared to already have a story set up, and the tone in her voice was serious enough to be believed.

"It was about two years back during a stormy night," she continued, "I noticed my husband hadn't returned yet and was starting to get worried. After a short while I went out looking for them...and that's when I found the grimm surrounding them."

As she went into detail, brief flashes of the event two years ago flashed back into her mind. She was recalling every detail of her story from the event that brought her and Ruby together all those years ago. It was easy for her to get into a depressed tone, seeing how the event actually was a little saddening to her.

Her mother was one of the few people Cinder truly wished she knew better. She was a caring, beautiful person who sacrificed her very life for her baby, and to forget such an event would be the greatest dishonor she could ever preform. Cinder would never tolerate anyone insulting the memory of someone Cinder actually respected, not even herself.

Even if she had to alter a few details of the event, she would keep the memory of her death alive.

"My husband was torn and dying, but sacrificed his own body to shield Ruby long enough for me to get there." Roman couldn't help but wonder if Cinder was actually getting sad or just pretending to be, because if she was she was a great actor. "He just had enough energy left to hand Ruby to me before he passed. I couldn't even give him a proper grave with the amount of grimm in the woods."

"Oh my..." Kali almost looked like she was choking back the tears. Aside from being the one who requested to hear such a tale, she also reminded Cinder of what she thought was a painful memory, not knowing how much or little it was truly affecting her. "I'm... I'm so sorry." Cinder just gave her a simple smile.

"It's alright, it was some time ago, but it doesn't bother me as much anymore." Cinder assured. "I'm just glad I didn't lose both of them on that night."

A part of her still regrets it, though. To find someone so caring and brave like Ruby's mother, to actually sacrifice her own life for her daughter, it was a thing more heard of than seen. Any mother like Ruby's true mother would've been one she would've gladly saved.

And there is no way to change that past, no matter how much she wishes.

"Well he sounds like an honorable man." Ghira raised his cup once more. "Here's to your husband." With a nod, Cinder raised her cup once more before taking a sip of the warm tea. She was more thankful at this time that neither of them asked for a name, unsure if she could've came up with something so soon on the spot like that.

But with that being said, the rest of the meeting went underway as planned. They discussed several things from the share of results previous heists have had, as well as the resources used to achieve them. There was a bit of a talk about the use of lethal force used for each heist, but Roman managed to convince them nobody was severely hurt, not a single civilian.

In honesty, that was partly true. Most of the security forces they did meet were robots, with the occasional human here and there too. The only side bit they didn't include was how they've lost several of their own people from their heists over the years, whether they be people who were captured, or the few who were killed by the security forces of the heist targets.

There was some worry that the White Fang leader was already aware of the matter, but as long as he didn't mention it, they wouldn't mention it themselves. Anything that the White Fang didn't address they wouldn't address. The last thing they wanted was for the meeting to go well and then suddenly drop some unexpecting ball that broke apart the meeting.

And out of all of this, Cinder only had one concern on her mind: How was Ruby doing?

...

...

"Mmmh! Smells great!" Blake cheered excitedly as she looked through the oven window.

The girl was a bit of a mystery for Ruby, who continued to watch her from from Neo's lap while holding her for protection. The girl was interested in nearly everything the warehouse had to offer, from the multiple rooms it had, to the room Ruby considered her room.

As expected from any fix or six-year-old, Blake wasn't all that interested in the few toys Ruby had in her room, complaining how they were mostly for babies. Some of them were still for children around Ruby's age. And like those for Ruby's age, Ruby enjoyed some of them just fine as well as coloring.

Sadly, that was true in some respects since Cinder rarely had time to actually get toys for Ruby in-between moving from different warehouses and pulling off heists. She would admit it would help them keep a better cover, seeing how most people wouldn't suspect a simple mother and her child being part of some nefarious organization, but the risk of exposing Ruby was too great to Cinder.

At least, like Ruby, Blake had a similar interest in drawing and coloring. But unlike Ruby, she didn't like doing it for more than ten minutes. Luckily Neo was already halfway done with making the cookies and managed to get Blake to join her and Ruby after she finished exploring around. And the entire time, Neo was carrying Ruby with one arm.

The poor three year old was still too frightened of everything that was going around her, unable to tell if the loads of scary, animal-looking adults were her fear, or simply the cat-girl that had loads of energy about her. It was already terrifying when she was carried off by the other girl. She was just thankful her "big sister" was there to save her before things got too out of control, not letting go of Neo even once after she was picked up.

All the same, Neo didn't seem to be having any issues either. She enjoyed baking the cookies when they started, letting Ruby have some fun by cracking a few of the eggs, and the big mess she made when she tried dumping the bag of flour onto the teaspoons instead of just gathering it. The resulting dust cloud of flour spread everywhere in the kitchen, Ruby's face included. It wasn't anything the girl herself couldn't handle, and she had to admit Ruby did have a cute sneeze from it.

Blake wasn't too much of a handful either. While she definitely had the energy to scare Ruby, she seemed more excited and thrilled with being able to help with baking the cookies during the later half of the cooking process. After that she just seemed occupied with watching the cookies bake after trying to ask Neo several curious question.

Neo couldn't answer any of them.

*Ding!*

"They're done!" Blake announced with excitement. Even Ruby poked her head up curiously as Neo got out of her chair again. "Come on! Open it, open it, open it!" Blake cheered excitedly. Neo smiled as she waved her hands to the young girl, silently telling her to calm down as she got the oven mitts out.

Setting Ruby down for a brief second, Neo carefully took the cookies out before placing them on the counter top. Making sure each and every one was done and ready for eating, she quickly pulled out a spatula and carefully pulled each and every delicious treat from the pan, careful not to break any of them apart or get any of them stuck to the pan.

If there was one activity Neo truly enjoyed with Ruby, it was making cookies with her. The cooking itself might've only been done by her usually, but she always enjoyed seeing Ruby's reaction whenever it came to the delicious cookies they made. She always had that same look on her face, that same excited glee in her eyes whenever she was about to eat her tasty treats. Just thinking about how she would react when she turned around with the cookies in hand got her so excited-!

Where were they?

Blake and Ruby were suddenly missing from Neo's sight, and there door was wide open. If Neo could, she would've said the next thing that came to her mind.

Uh oh.

...

...

"Let's go explore some more!" Blake said with excitement, carrying Ruby via piggyback once more. The toddler couldn't even react fast enough to tell Neo when Blake grabbed her and bolted her out of the room.

She couldn't even bring herself to tell Blake to stop! For a girl possibly three years older than her, she was moving surprisingly fast through the hallways. Then again, considering Ruby had her face buried in Blake's back, being too scared to look at where she was, she didn't know exactly where they were. All she knew was that she was scared, and that she wanted mommy.

"Oooh!" Blake's excited squeal was all Ruby needed to poke her head up again as they came to a stop. Setting Ruby down behind her, she looked between Blake and the strange door she was staring at. "Let's look in here!" Blake said with excitement as she reached for the door.

"N-No!" Ruby quickly squealed, grabbing Blake's hand. "W-we should go back. Our mommieth are gonna be worried!" Ruby sniffled.

"No they wont," Blake said with a positive smile, "we'll just take a peek and everything will be fine!" She said with confidence as she began pulling Ruby towards the door. "Now let's go!"

"No!" Ruby yelped trying to pull back. The one rule mommy always had was never open any doors that were closed or that she didn't recognize.

"I said yes, now come on!" Blake grumbled irritably. She wanted to explore this fun place and see everything inside! Why was this baby being such a...well...baby about it! It made her mad as she glared the shorter girl.

"N- Ehuh...ehhhugh, awwwuhhhh!" Ruby suddenly started crying, tears streaming down her face. Blake suddenly began to panic, her expression of anger quickly changing to worry and regret, drooping her ears.

"What's wrong?"

Ruby hiccuped briefly before she could reply. "I want mommy!" Ruby cried.

Now Blake was really starting to feel guilty. She didn't mean to make Ruby cry, she just thought she was having the same amount of fun too. She got to meet a lot of new people, she got to bake cookies with someone, and she even got to play with someone new! Why wasn't Ruby having as much friend as she had?

Looking back on it though, maybe she really was rushing things here. She never even stopped to slow down and figure out how Ruby herself was doing. She just assumed she was having the same amount of fun as she was, so never bothered to ask how she was doing or what she wanted to do. Her own mother told her to be nice to the little friend she was going to meet so she thought she was.

But now she realizes she meant to do what she wants to do. Or at least keep the toddler from crying. With a small small smile, she pulled the little girl towards her as she hugged her gently.

"Hey, it's alright, everything is going to be ok." Blake said softly, patting Ruby's head. She figured it was working as Ruby threw her small arms around Blake tightly. "Big Sis' Blake will keep ya safe!" She said proudly as she pointed to herself. Ruby sniffled for a few more seconds before looking up with a teary-eyed, slightly nose-running face.

"Bi...Big thither?" Ruby lisped once more as she sniffled. Blake nodded as she wiped Ruby's teary eyes.

The term "big sister" wasn't anything new to Ruby. After all, she invented it! At least she assumed she did. The only person she ever considered to be big sister was her Big Sister Neo, and even then Neo never agreed to her on it... audibly speaking.

So did this mean she had two big sisters now? Was that even allowed? What were the general rules for having big siblings? Was there a three person limit? Did they have to be of certain age?

All these questions Ruby kept asking herself was suddenly interrupted by a tickling sensation she felt under her chin. It was soft, fluffy, and completely overpowering. "Eh hehhhah hahaha!" Ruby couldn't help but laughed, which gave Blake more than enough reason to smile.

One of the many benefits of being a Fauna- tails usually tickled. And fortunately for Blake, she happened to find Ruby's secret tickle spot right under her chin.

"Feel better?" Blake asked curiously. Ruby wiped her face a bit as she nodded. With a simple smile, Blake offered her hand again, which Ruby hesitantly took. "Then let's go, there's going to be more yummy treats in here!"

That was always a great thing! Nothing was better in the world than Yummy treats, except for mommy, sissy, and toys! If they were just going to get more treats, then Ruby assumed it would be just fine if they went in then.

There was still one question on her mind though.

"What maketh you think there'th treatth in here?" Ruby asked as she nibbled on her thumb again some more.

"Can't you read the s-" Blake paused as she suddenly remembered who she was talking to. "Well, it's what the sign said silly!"

"The thign?" Ruby repeated with a raised brow.

"Yeah! It said DONUT ENTER." Blake said happily.

A shame. A very sad shame. Despite having more of an ability to read, Blake's reading comprehension clearly wasn't that good. If she could read, she would've realized the sign that warned "DO NOT ENTER" clearly meant something else...

...

...

...

 **A/N: Hoftah! Another fun-tabulous child-filled chapter with our adorable little Ruby, and the newly appointed Big Sister #2 ^^ Leave a favorite and review, and be sure to tell me what you think if you liked it. Send support, and if there's any artists out there that can make artwork for this series, or at least a title cover, I would gladly make a fan-chapter of anything you request to see involving the child Ruby!**

 **Again, leave me your thoughts, and expect to see more in the future ^^!**


	4. Status of the Fanfic

A/N: Oh how I love the feedback ^^ everyone seems to be supporting this stuff even MORE than I expected them too! Thanks to everyone who has so far, at this point I'd like to announce that I'm willing to take requests for things you guys wanna see in the fanfic for things like "filler episodes" or something.

Also, to anyone who manages to draw a cover for this series, or finds the best picture for this fanfic, I'd be willing to take any request you have and have it as part of the main series (meaning it would be part of the actual story, not just a one/two-part thing).

Once again, thank you to everybody who've already supported this fic, whether it be the people who are favoriting or those who are reviewing (spoiler alert, i love them more XP). Speaking of which, I'd like to hear your guys' thoughts on what you've liked most about this so far, and what you hope to see more.

Till then, expect something later this afternoon ^^!


	5. Stay out of the basement!

A/N: Oh how I love the feedback ^^ everyone seems to be supporting this stuff even MORE than I expected them too! Thanks to everyone who has so far, at this point I'd like to announce that I'm willing to take requests for things you guys wanna see in the fanfic for things like "filler episodes" or something.

Also, to anyone who manages to draw a cover for this series, or finds the best picture for this fanfic, I'd be willing to take any request you have and have it as part of the main series (meaning it would be part of the actual story, not just a one/two-part thing).

Once again, thank you to everybody who've already supported this fic, whether it be the people who are favoriting or those who are reviewing (spoiler alert, i love them more XP). Speaking of which, I'd like to hear your guys' thoughts on what you've liked most about this so far, and what you hope to see more.

Till then, expect something later this afternoon ^^!

...

...

...

"I think we can agree on this then." Ghira deemed, wiping his lips clean of the herbal tea. Cinder sighed mentally in relief and joy.

Everything had gone according to plan, if not better than they expected. The White Fang would send more support from their side, including more Lien currency, more members to help them with the operations on their side of things, and more equipment to pull off the more sophisticated tasks that came at hand. All of this on the condition that there would still be no civilian casualties, as well as a very scarce few casualties overall.

In exchange, the organization on their side of things would send more Dust shipments with each successful heist. They were to maintain weekly contact with the leader as well as details on each successful heist that went about. They were to detail the total results of each heist, which targets were hit, summaries of the previous and next heist, and status results of the month's progress on a scale.

In addition, whenever a heist for prototype technology was being made, the organization would send samples of the prototypes to the White Fang leader for them to experiment with. If there was only one prototype to steal, then they were to send that to the White Fang while they kept any and all schematics they found on it.

It might not have seemed like a fair trade to some, but in this way they could learn more about the technologies of it, as well as exploit weaknesses in the weapon or facilities that created them. Thus it would still benefit both parties at once.

There was, however, one detail neither side did discuss. A side neither Cinder, nor Roman, brought up. And it was going to stay that way unless the White Fangs brought it up first.

"We'll have the first order of resources brought over by the end of the month." Ghira continued. "We just need time to discuss this with our members and prepare our shipments."

"I trust this wouldn't be a problem?" Kali wondered before sipping her tea.

"Not at all," the expert of Top Hats replied, "this works great with us as well."

Time actually wasn't an important factor in this case. For one thing, the end of the month was in about ten days, so they would only need to wait a little over a week. On top of that, they already finished pulling off the last heist not two days ago, so they were good on currency for awhile.

Cinder closed her hand together as she smiled to the two. "Is there anything else you'd like to discuss?" Even though they were supposed to be polite, the sooner they could end the meeting the better. There were still things she had to do and things they needed to prepare for. And with this early meeting, they still needed to make sure the warehouse was clear of anything forgotten.

Besides the worry of anything being left around, it was important to get all the details in and out. The last thing they needed was some unannounced condition or last second news neither side knew about and suddenly sabotage each other's relationship. Maintaining a perfect relation with each other was the key to getting the funding and support the organization needed.

"I think that covers everything then..." Blake's father scratched his chin, pondering if there was anything else they forgot.

"Although I do think we should meet every now and then," Kali suggested, catching the attention of the other three, "it's nice being able to meet like this. Plus, Blake and little Ruby seem to get along so well with each other, it would be good for them."

Roman couldn't help but glance at Cinder who seemed to be at an cross with this. Seriously she couldn't actually be considering this, could she? While it might've helped improve relations with the White Fang further, they couldn't afford to keep fixing the place up in case they were doing something unwanted. They barely had time alone to clean away anything around here, and even then who knows if they got everything! It put their organization at more of a risk.

And that's not even including any unexpected early visits.

Cinder, on the other hand, was contemplating the alternative. It might've exposed them more this way, but she was too lost in thought thinking about Ruby. Considering she's spent a majority of her life in the warehouses since adopting her, she's barely had any contact with the outside world. The expression on her face when she first met Blake and her siblings isn't one she wanted to see each time she met someone new. Not to mention with the amount of secrecy they were trying to maintain at all times, being out in public was out of the question.

Thinking back on it, it might actually be more beneficial if Ruby and Blake could have these "play dates". Even though she didn't want to, at some point Ruby was going to have contact with the outside world, whether by her own will or something suddenly happening that forced it upon them. She needed some form of contact with the outside world, and, for now, this might be their best way to do it.

"Well... all things considered..." Cinder mumbled briefly, leaning her head against both her arms.

Roman couldn't believe what she was about to say, even if it was for Ruby. She isn't really going to say what I think she is, is she? He thought to himself in disbelief.

"I...guess we cou-

*Thud*

*Thud*

*Thud*

The response was cut short as everyone at the meeting suddenly heard the sounds of running footsteps. Turning back to the hallway, everyone was surprised to see Neo standing in the door way, body slung over as she struggled to catch her breath, covered in sweat.

This was not a good sign.

"Neo? What's wro-" Cinder quickly stood from the table, fearing the worst all of a sudden. "Where's Ruby?" The worried face she was giving told her everything. She had no idea.

Blake's parents stood up in unison at this. If Neo was trying to tell them that Ruby was missing, then it only made sense what else it meant. "Where's our daughter?" Kali asked slightly worried. Cinder did her best to try and give them a reassuring look.

"It'll be alright, they couldn't have left without the guards watching the doors." That detail did make Cinder herself feel better. Obviously when meeting with the leaders of a fellow semi-terroristic group, there was no way they could meet in peace without buffing up security around the warehouse. Nobody was supposed to get in or out, as per Cinder's direct orders. "They must've gone to Ruby's room to play. There 's nowhere else they could've..." Cinder paused as her heart skipped a beat. A great realization made her worry with terror. "The basement-"

"Basement?" Ghira repeated in confusion. Cinder broke out of her terrified stupor as she realized what she said. There wasn't supposed to be any mention of the basement to the warehouse, mostly because it wasn't supposed to exist.

That's what they told the White Fang Leader anyway.

"What basement are you talking about? What's going on?!" Roman lowered his hat as he turned away from the conversation. He couldn't tell what to say to help the situation, or think about how Cinder just blurted out something so vital to keep secret. This definitely proved his earlier theory about how Ruby would become too much of an attachment for Cinder, but at this point he had a bigger worry:

How would Cinder react if something happened to Ruby in the basement...?

...

...

"Wooooow, it's huuuuuuuge!" Blake gasped as her eyes widened, mouth dropping in pure shock. Even Ruby was wide-eyed at the sight of such a huge room. It probably had a bigger impact on Ruby since she's never even seen the outside world before, save for her bedroom windows. She had no experience to this much space before!

Before the two children lied the biggest room either of them had ever seen. The entire basement was a surprising railway system with several tunnels leading out of the giant cave-like room and into parts unknown. Neither of them could figure out what the purposes of these rooms were, never knowing how they were used to transport large pieces of equipment through the tunnel ways in the past.

There were a few boxes laid about the sides of the room and a surprising bridge that arched over one of the railways, but none of them had anything of importance or interest to the two girls. The few boxes they checked didn't have anything at all. When Blake inspected them, all they found were a few clouds of dusts, most of it noticeably caught in Blake's long hair.

In one such box-opening instance, Blake was powerless to resist as a large amount of dust puffed off from her hair after exiting a box. The ensuing cloud of dust caused an irresistible sneeze from the young cat fauna, the sudden loud cough inadvertently causing even more dust to puff out of her hair in the process. Despite being on the receiving end of something so silly, Blake could only laugh.

Even Ruby found it humorous as she let out a small giggle. The wonder of the room only heightened as their laughter echoed throughout the enormous place several times. What little fear Ruby did have of this place was snuffed out over the last couple minutes. While she did fear the dark of this place and what it had to offer, like she would with her mother or other big sister, she felt safe with Blake holding her hand along the way.

Both literally and metaphorically.

"See? I told you this place would be cool!" Blake said cheerfully.

Ruby had to admit, as scary as the day had been for the most part, and how strange she physically found these people, it was starting to turn into a fun day! Blake was really nice like her mother said she would be, and while being a rather scary place, she did find some things interesting. Again, she still felt unnerved from the environment, but felt fine as long as Blake was there by her side.

"But where are all the donuth?" Ruby asked curiously.

On the way down the stairs to here, Blake when into details about the greatness of donuts and all the varieties they had! Plain, sprinkles, jelly-filled, cream, and her favorite, chocolate! There were so many delicious varieties that Blake described that Ruby's mouth started drooling halfway down! Sure she drooled on the occasion anyway, but not so hungrily!

It was also the entire point that Ruby and Blake went down here. What else was Blake supposed to expect from a sign that said "Donut Enter"? It would've helped more if Blake's reading comprehension was slightly better than it was now, otherwise she would've realized what the sign had really said.

But by the way the day was turning, it didn't seem to matter. To Blake, someone ate all the donuts before Ruby or Blake could get to them. To Ruby, she just nibbled on her thumb every now and then when she got nervous. Blake was the older one, and according to Blake, that put her in charge. As long as they stayed together, everything would be okay.

All Blake could do was shrug as she pulled Ruby along gently. "Beats me, I guess someone else got to them first?"

"Awwwwww!" Ruby whined with a pout. If there was one thing she didn't like, aside from the mentioned, it was finding out there were no treats when there was the promise of treats. Why was the universe so cruel?!

*twitch*

*twitch*

"Hmm?" Ruby noticed as Blake's attention suddenly shifted to her right, noticing her ears twitch in a funny manner as she did. She couldn't figure out what was catching Blake's attention so suddenly, unaware of the increased sense of hearing she possessed as a cat fauna. "What was that?"

"What wath what?" The toddler tried looking around to see what she was talking about.

Taking Ruby's hand, Blake lead her across the bridge towards another verily large container. This one looked incredibly different from all the other ones. Unlike the other ones, this one had a strange door handle on the front of it, along with a broken lock on the floor in front of it. n addition, this one had a strange small window, almost the size of Blake's hair, at the top of the doorway. For some strange reason, it had three bars across it, but they were spaced enough to easily see through.

While Blake gazed at it with excitement, Ruby frowned with uncertainty. She couldn't tell why but she was getting a very bad feeling about the sudden and mysterious didn't know why, but it scared it. It scared her like the dark did at times, never being able to see what was hidden in the shadows, always feeling like something was there. Even with Blake beside her, she was frightened. Honestly, and truly frightened.

She started to wish that mommy was there. By now she learned that if she wished for her mother to be there when she really felt like she needed it, something was definitely wrong.

Blake inched towards the window slowly as she gazed at it. "What's in here?" She stopped when she was about to grab one of the bars when she felt Ruby pulling back. Looking back at her, she was more concerned as Ruby appeared to get misty-eyed with tears. "What's wrong, Ruby?"

"I..." She shook a little as she gulped. "I don't think we thould go neaw it. We thould jutht go back upthairs!" Strangely, Blake only smiled at the suggestion.

"We will, don't worry." Blake couldn't get enough of the sight of the mysterious container. Who knows what sort of treasures might lie behind it! "Let's just see what's inside."

"No!" Ruby teared up as she squeezed Blake's hand tighter. It didn't feel like much to the older six year old, but she could tell Ruby was really serious. "Pleath Blake, I wanna go back now! I really wanna go baaaack!" She hiccuped as she began to cry once again.

Blake could only sigh, but this time with a small smile. She did promise Ruby to only do this for a few minutes, plus there was the fact there were no donuts in this place like she thought there would be. Besides, overall the day was a lot of fun. Blake enjoyed just being able to play with a new friend. And to be honest, this place really was starting to get to her, and not in the way that made things more exciting, only scarier.

She couldn't tell what, but there was something about this place that gave her the creeps. She was used to the ambience of silence before, but strangely this place felt a little too quiet to her. Whatever it was, she just wanted to put it all behind her and see how her parents were doing.

"Ok, ok, we can go back." Blake said calmly. Ruby rubbed her eyes for a few seconds before she could reply.

"W-Weally?" She sniffled.

"Yeah! We can go color and eat the cookies your big sister made us!" Blake said enthusiastically. She was warmed to see Ruby brightening up at this.

"Yaaa!" The three year old cheered raising her fists.

"C'mon, let's get out of this pla-"

*ROOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAR*

"Ahhhhhhhhh!" Blake suddenly squealed in pain as she was pulled back towards the barred window following the intense roar.

Ruby was petrified at the horrific sight she was witnessing; before her very eyes, a hideous, hollow-white face, with glowing red eyes, had it's gaping jaws covering Blake's hair. The small girl was powerless to pull herself away from the monstrous creature Ruby only knew as a Grimm.

They were creatures of darkness. Literal, pure, darkness. They knew only death and destruction as they thrived on the death of living creatures around them, their only purpose being to consume and destroy all in their path. They wanted nothing more than the satisfaction of destroying anything not shunned by the light, anything that could be used to harm them. All they wanted was death. The one and only absolute thing in this world. And the two girls were the closest targets it found next.

The only barrier keeping these two fragile girls alive were the bars separating the beast between the Grimm and it's prey, but even that didn't help Blake's long hair that it managed to get ahold of. It was just waiting, biding it's time until she was just close enough to strike. All it had to do now was pull it closer to the cage, the one it had been so wrongfully locked in.

After all, cats made a tasty snack too.

"Ooowwwwwwwwwwww!" Blake continued to scream as she cried, squeezing her head as she tried to pull away. "Get it off, get it off!"She begged to anyone.

"Nnnnghhhhhhh..." Ruby was at a loss on what to do horrified tears strolled down her face.

She was just a three year old girl who didn't know the hardships of life. All she wanted to do was spend everyday the same way, with her, her mommy, and possibly big sister. Yet every minute after the last today, things just went from bad to worse. Sometimes they got a bit better, but overall it got worse and worse with each passing minute.

Now she was at the precipice of what to do. This would be a job for her mommy of all people, she would always have the answers! She could run and find her mommy to make everything better! But at the same time, she couldn't bring herself to leave Blake alone! The scary monster was just so scary! And as much as it terrified her, she couldn't even begin to think of how Blake was feeling!

It wasn't a impulse of bravery or stupidity, Ruby just couldn't leave her friend like this all by herself. Trembling as she walked over, she slowly reached her hand over as she tearfully grabbed a lock of Blake's hair. All she had to do was pull it away far enough to free Blake, and then the two of them could run. Run, find their mommies and Blake's daddy, and then they could make the monster go away, just like the one her mommy said lived in the dark. If only they could pull it away though.

The grimm had a tight grip on Blake's hair, and as shocking as it was to believe, the five-to-six-year-old and the three-and-a-half-year-old weren't exactly the strongest bunch of people to pull themselves away from a monstrous grimm. It might not have been the deadliest or strongest of grimm, seeing how the crate it was from was only a few inches taller than Blake, but it was definitely enough to handle two children pulling at it.

And it was that moment the grimm wanted the most.

"Aaaaaahuhhhhhhhh!" Ruby cried out painfully as the grimm switched targets. It was no longer content with the lock of hair it had earlier, now it was settling for the toddler's hand that got too close to the opening. Blake found herself falling forwards from the sudden release on her hair, eyes still fresh with tears as she rubbed her head soothingly. Even though she looked back, she could only see so much clearly with her teary eyes. She wasn't even sure what the grimm was biting now, but that mattered little after another moment.

"RUBY!" A familiar voice shouted in shock and horror.

The next thing either girl knew was a small but precise ball of fire shooting straight into the beast's head, burning it and blasting it far enough to release Ruby's hand. Immediately Ruby was picked up by Neo as several others worked their way towards the two guard, followed by a dozen guards of the White Fang. Among them, Roman was the one to deal the killing blow to the great beast, sticking his cane inside the small window before releasing a single blast. The beast's weak roar was the last thing to echo the room as the sound of a body falling over silenced the noise.

The dozen guards continued to secure the crate just in case, not wanting to take any chance if the dreaded beast was alive. On top of that, they couldn't afford to let anything else happen to Blake, on the chance the beast awoke once more.

"Blake!" Blake's parents shouted in unison.

"Mommy! Daddy!" Blake cried out in relief and fear, her loving parents picking her up as she cried herself into her mother's chest. Like them, Cinder was also filled with dread as she ran to Ruby's side, patting her head soothingly.

"Ruby, sweetie, it's okay now, you're safe!" Cinder panted in mix exhaustion, stress, relaxation, and remorse.

The moment they discovered Ruby was missing, Cinder was struck with fear. It would've been one thing if they were in any other part of the building, but the basement was the last place she wanted them to be. The grimm were to be shipped from this warehouse to the next overnight via the tunnels before Blake's parents appeared, but that proved useless when they announced their arrival early.

From the moment they were gone, Cinder was filled with fear that something was going to happen to them, heading straight to the basement right away with the White Fangs following close behind. Of all the things to forget, they forgot to lock the basement door, and that resulted in Cinder finding an absolute nightmare before her.

There stood Ruby, crying out in both horror and pain, as her hand was being bitten by the monstrous grimm. For an instance, Cinder cared not anymore for organization she ran for, only the safety of her child. She didn't want anything else around her save for her baby, and that fury of the grimm hurting her gave her the instantaneous spark she needed to blast the terrified creature straight in the face.

Now, here she stood, filled with regret over all the actions she took today. All she could do was comfort her small daughter who was crying over her fear, and the pain in her slightly bleeding hand.

"Neo, take her upstairs immediately, and clean her hand." Cinder instructed. Neo didn't need to be asked twice. She grew to care about Ruby just like Cinder did, and didn't want to take any chance that her hand could get infected, even after saving her life. Luckily the wound didn't seem too serious, it was just a small bite wound no worse than that from a dog, but that didn't change the amount of fear either woman had for the toddler.

"Ehhugughghhh..." Ruby continued to sniffle loudly as she shook her hand slightly. She couldn't bring herself to cry in her mother's arms, too distracted from the pain in her hand. She could only sniffle as her mother smiled warmly to her as she patted her head.

"It's alright sweetie, you're going to be fine now." With a small kiss to her forehead, she nodded off to Neo as she took off with Ruby. Out of reflex, Cinder reached out in Ruby's direction as she watched her daughter run off in Neo's arms. She's never been so happy to see her daughter safe and sound, but more importantly, remorsed how her actions were partly to blame for what she almost lost.

As happy as this little rescue was, there was an important matter about to take place.

"What is the meaning of this?" Ghira shouted in anger. His anger wasn't misplaced, seeing how several events transpired almost leading to his daughter's death. "What kind of organization would need a grimm captured alive of all things?!"

"And to think you would have a daughter raised around a dangerous place like this!" Kali added as she soothed her daughter's head. "What kind of horrible parent are you!" The last comment left Cinder speechless as she slightly shook.

"L-Look we can explain!" Roman tried to intervene, coming between the couple and Cinder. "You see, the grimm was just a...w-we were only-"

"I don't want your excuses, human!" The leader growled in anger. "My daughter almost died just now, and you expect me to just buy the next thing you say! We're leaving, and that's final!"

That wasn't a good sign. If they left this angrily then there was no way they were going to do lend support to any of their operations, and that's if they were lucky. At this rate they were more likely to take back ALL the support, primarily the White Fanh henchmen at their side.

"N-No!" Blake suddenly cried out, catching her father's attention. "It's not Ruby's fault, it was mine!"

"Sweetie..." Kali stared at her daughter with worry, noticing the tears in her eyes and the seriousness in her tone.

"It's true! I saw the sign on the door and just thought there was something good in here! Ruby wanted to leave but I convinced her to try this! Pleeeeease!" Blake cried, not wanting this to be the last time she saw her new friend.

"That's not true sweetie," Kali hugged her weeping daughter tightly as she cried, "even if you went somewhere you shouldn't, that doesn't excuse them for having this grimm in the first place! What kind of mother are you to leave something so dangerous for a child-

" **She's not my daughter**!" Cinder shouted in anger.

There was a sudden silence that filled the basement as everyone turned their gaze upon Cinder, Blake included. She didn't turn from her spot, she didn't look at anyone. She simply squeezed her fist as she shook. She didn't care what they said, she didn't care if they knew if she was her mother or not. She just didn't want them to continue harassing her for all her lies.

Her first lie already lead to her daughter being attacked. She wouldn't dare repeat that mistake again.

Much like Roman, both parents and Blake were at a complete loss for words. First the basement, then the grimm, and now they find out she's not even Ruby's mother? Unless she had a pleasant explanation, this was about to go from bad to worse.

"What do you mean...she's not your daughter?" Kali raised her brow in confusion. There was a brief silence that went about before Cinder replied.

"Everything I said about my husband was a lie," she revealed, "the setting, the events, the grimm, it was all true, but the person who died wasn't my husband. It was Ruby's real mother."

Now this took both parents back a bit. While they were still fuming at the events only mere seconds ago, they couldn't help but wonder what would bring a person like this to bring an orphan into their lifestyle. To a normal person they would understand, finding an abandoned or alone baby and raising it as their own. But after the events they were greeted to recently, it was hard to believe these people were decent enough to actually take in a lone infant.

Which is why they found it a bit more heartfelt as Cinder continued.

"I found Ruby's mother dying after using her last ounce of strength to keep her baby safe from the attacking grimm. A woman that deserved to live, and not a day goes by where I don't regret saving her earlier." That took both parents a little more set back. They weren't ever expecting such a sentimental comment from someone like...her.

"And you never bothered trying to find her family or return her to the authorities?" Ghira questioned as he crossed his arms.

"And what would you assume would be the response if a lone woman brought in an abandoned baby she found from a bloodied mother?" CInder shot back.

She did have a good point. Especially given their small criminal history, if Cinder had ended up trying to return the baby after finding her with her dead mother, the obvious assumption would've been to assume she was responsible for the dead body. Not only that, but considering the dead mother was a huntress, that would've only furthered the hunt and investigation for the woman that presumably killed her, and that would've messed up everything.

"So yeah, I took her in." She stated firmly as her body tensed. "I took her in, and raised her as my own for the last two and a half years. I don't even know her damn birthday, nor do I know anything about truly raising a kid. But I want you to mark my words," Cinder began as she walked away, "I will _**NEVER**_ abandon her."

And with that, she was gone. This left an incredible amount of emotion in the hearts of both parents, unable to know what to feel or what to say. This woman was one of the worst people, history wise at least, and yet she still had the decency to raise a lone girl all on her own. She didn't have any parenting experience, or any care for those who worked around her outside of being simple allies, yet she still had the heart enough to raise someone as her own daughter.

At the same time, they couldn't forget what was just done. Her actions also lead to almost losing their daughter. They had the knowledge of this thing being down here and never even warned them. Whether it was a matter of trust or they were really trying to keep something hidden from them, the organization didn't tell either of them, and it was almost a disastrous consequence.

So how were they supposed to feel? Were they supposed to me furious or sympathetic? Cancel all future meetings and business or continue it? It wasn't until Roman Torchwick broke the silence that something was finally said.

"Look, maybe I can simplify things..."

...

...

Quiet.

Peaceful, and quiet.

That was the only state Cinder found Ruby in as she found her later in their bedroom, sleeping Neo's lap as she sucked her thumb. Walking over to the peaceful girl, she could only wince as she noticed the bandage wrapped around the middle of her hand. She begged this wasn't going to be a permanent scar. She didn't want Ruby to remember this day after day for the rest of her life, even if it somehow made her stronger for surviving this experience. She just wanted Ruby to be safe and happy, that's all she ever wanted.

Noticing the worrying mother in the room, Neo smiled slightly as she gently handed the sleeping girl to her. Cinder teared slightly as she smiled down to her sweetie. She didn't want this sort of life for her, but she did. She didn't want her real mother to be dead because of her, but she was. She didn't want Ruby in any harm, and yet she wasn't there to protect her. All she could do was softly stroke her head as she sat upon her own bed.

It was at that moment that she truly realized the problem she was facing. Ruby needed space. She needed to go somewhere where she could be safe and Cinder could still run her operations, somewhere her daughter wouldn't be in harms way if they housed grimm anymore.

And it was very doubtful they would capture grimm anymore, unless a certain someone ordered it directly.

*creeeeeeak*

Cinder continued to stroke her daughter's head gently, even as Neo looked back to the opening door. Cinder didn't need to even see who it was, knowing Roman was the only possible person still remaining around here, and the only one who would be allowed near them at all after what happened.

For some reason, Neo couldn't tell why Roman was walking in so casually while twirling his cane. "So, how's the little princess?" He asked with a smile. There was a moment of silence before Cinder bothered to reply.

"She's fine, for now." The frown on Cinder's face was too obvious, even if Roman couldn't see it. "But I don't know what to do anymore. We need to figure out what to do now without the White Fang's support, a plan or something." Neo was curious as to the casual and calm expression on Roman's face.

"Hmm...yeah, yeah, that sounds like a problem to me...Definitely going to need some lien for that..." Neo watched as he went from rubbing his chin to digging through his pockets. "Will this help?"

* _Thud_ *

Cinder blinked in surprise as Roman suddenly dropped a large stack of lien right in front of her. She knew Roman. Even with the money he kept on him from his heists, he never carried this much money at once on him. Not only that, but the look of this money was still fresh, barely without aged wrinkles you could usually get from money shoved into one's pocket. She couldn't help but reach out for the money and touch it with her own hands, seeing if this was really a dream or not.

She didn't know where he got this from or where he could've got this from. There was only one explanation.

"Is this from Ghira?" She already knew the answer to that, but was still baffled after the recent affairs.

"An advancement on the first order of Financial Support." Roman said with a grin, tapping his cane on the floor. "And there'll be more where that came from by the end of the month."

Both Neo and Cinder looked at each other in a mix of disbelief and shock. It worked? they were still going to support the organization even after everything that happened? Did they forget what almost happened to their daughters, what would've happened if any of them got there any later? They must've, otherwise they wouldn't have assisted them as they just did now. I mean why else would they?!

Neo counted the lien, and judging by her expression, it was legitimate. There was a lot of lien around, perhaps more than Cinder even expected depending on the currency. They were still more surprised by the idea that they actually got this money at all than the money in front of them though. It was something they needed answered asap.

"This can't be real..." A still-baffled Cinder stated, looking back to Torchwick. "Did they give this to you?"

"Mh-hm." The gangster nodded with a tip to the hat. "Every last penny there, free to use as much as needed." The attention of the two were drawn to Neo as she hastily wrote on her cue cards, revealing it to them as soon as the pen left the paper.

-WHY?-

"Well, surprisingly, because of her." Roman aimed his cane at Ruby. Cinder didn't know how to respond to that. Sure Ruby tried to save Blake, and Blake found her a dear friend, but she couldn't have been the only reason. "And you." He added looking at Cinder.

Ok, that made a little more sense but was still just as confusing.

"Me?" Cinder repeated in confusion.

"Yup, apparently they were a bit touched you went out of your way for an abandoned orphan, so way to strike 'em in the hearts." He joked.

"They weren't angry about the basement or the grimm?"

"Well yeah, of course they were, but I managed to convince them the grimm was a security measure. We just had it in case our base was ever assaulted, they believed me when I told them the tunnels were an escape route while the grimm were to keep them busy."

Wow. Just wow. This was one of the few reasons Cinder liked Roman. If there was one thing she could say he was competent in, it was his quick thinking. No matter how dire a situation was or how bad it looked, he always had some method of thinking outside the box and reacting to any bad situation as soon as it arose.

This also meant this day was an overall success. Granted they were going to have to be extremely careful from this point forward not to seem deceiving to the White Fang or their leader, but the work has been done. They finally managed to gain greater support from the White Fangs like they hoped to all along. There was only one manner of business Cinder needed answered.

"But why did they give was liens early?" She wondered. If the end of the month just ten days away anyway, why send them the money this early?

"Well..." Roman scratched his head awkwardly. "It's mostly for her too, they said." That comforted Cinder while confusing her at the same time. She was thrilled she was receiving support to help raise Ruby, but it didn't answer what he meant. "They want us to find somewhere safer for her to live, somewhere we can fall back on without endangering her during business." Neo smiled happily to Cinder, knowing this meant they were going to move somewhere hopefully better.

"Oh...hmm..." Cinder rubbed her chin curiously as a flutter of relief warmed through her heart, gazing out a near window to the outside sunset-filled sky.

Overall, today was a good day. It was slightly hazardous, dangerous, and stress-inducing, but overall a good day. They had won the support they needed, Ruby did manage to make a new friend after today, the White Fang were on their side more than they were hoping for, and they made an advancement on their first financial support.

And as Cinder gazed out the window, she noticed the penthouse to a nearby skyscraper, one that overlooked the entire city. She smiled.

The day just got better...

...

...

...

A/N: Annnnnnnnnnnnnnd hooftah. Well folks, this is it. I think it's safe to say i'm nearly close to my previous writing proficiency and back to posting on a more-often/daily basis ^^.

On a note, i was contacted by the creator of the Cinder AU series, and found out...I was doing my series incredibly wrong XD. Apparently this AU was supposed to take place during the present time of Rwby, but Ruby was the only one who was a 5 year old and being raised by Cinder. So after crying in a corner since I wasted my last week of vacation on doing something wrong (no not literally it's a joke XP), I decided I'm going to make two versions of this: this version of the AU series, and the one based on the creator's version.

To do that, anytime I make a filler episode like I did for the danganronpa series, I've decided to do the AU series for those. So any time someone wants a filler/bonus episode/request, it'll be done in the creator's version (unless they choose mine). Might sound confusing, but overall that's the plan.

Sorry if the above fic seems a little rushed towards the end, but you try writing this from 7 til nearly-freaking 11 at night and see if you start rushing things before you go to bed X/...

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed it! Leave a fav, and remember to review ^^! If you have any requests on what you guys would like to see, leave it in the reviews ^^!


	6. Moving Day!

**A/N: Hey folks! Not much to say here, but be prepared for the end of the episode! We get our very first Q 'n A panel hosted by our loveable toddler Ruby herself ^^! This'll become a common thing where we answer questions at the end of each episode from the reviews we get, sometimes Ruby will answer them, sometimes others like Cinder or Neo will too. You'll be informed who's hosting each one by the end of each previous Q'n'A.**

 **For those who want to join in on the fun, all you have to do is post your questions within the reviews- and i mean in the REVIEWS; simply typing "I want to see this next" in each review doesn't count as a review people XP i wanna know people's thoughts on the chapters too. Once you do that, then you can post your questions for each character. And don't worry, some characters will return more than one (like ruby, obvs).**

 **So without further ado, let's move on to the next length of our journey!**

 **(I would also like to note; I'm still working on how a toddler 3-year-old would talk with a lisp, so lisping might be a little more in this one since I have no idea how a 3 year talks)**

...

...

...

"Yaaaawwwwn..." Ruby rubbed her sleepy eyes as she awoke to the morning routine of Cinder changing her from her nighttime diaper to her pull-ups.

"Good morning sweetie," Cinder greeted with her usual warming smile, "sleep well?" It took Ruby a few seconds to wake herself up, rubbing her eyes as her mom carried her away.

"Yeth..." Her response was followed by another brief yawn. Much to her surprise, instead of heading straight to the bathroom like they usually do, Cinder placed her back on the bed as she went back to packing a strange bag. "Wha'th going on?" She asked curiously as she wandered over, looking at the bag.

Like always Cinder returned to her with a calm smile, an excited one at that. "We're moving today, sweetie."

That was a term Ruby actually was accustomed to. Whenever mommy said they were moving, that always meant they were going to go outside. It was one of Ruby's favorite times since it was the only time she was allowed to go outside and see the world with mommy. It also meant they were going to see a new home, which usually consisted of another warehouse. As long as she could still play with Blake in a few weeks again like mommy promised, then that's all that mattered!

It was about a week after the events of the White Fang meeting. Fortunately, things had gone pretty well by the end of things. There were many ups and downs when it came to the meeting, specifically Ruby and Blake ending up finding a Grimm that was being stored in the basement for future plans, but thanks to Cinder's bravery or just not caring at that point, she revealed the truth of Ruby's relationship to herself, as well as how she came across Ruby as a baby.

It might've been foolish to admit to more lies to the leaders of an resistance group, but surprisingly the truth worked in their favor. Touched by her story and how she's been raising Ruby as her own, they eventually conceded to sending support to the organization. Whether it was her story itself or how deeply they themselves care about family and tradition, it was enough to win their support.

And more importantly, it also meant Ruby could play with her new big sister more often!

From what her mother said Blake and her parents would be visiting every now and then, though was a bit vague on what that meant. Ruby waited all day the first day, Blake never showed up. She waited the second day, Blake still never showed up. By the end of the fourth day Ruby started getting upset thinking Blake didn't want to play with her anymore. Thankfully Cinder corrected her previous statement by saying it was going to be every few weeks to a month or two.

While it still didn't make Ruby feel any better, mostly since she didn't know the length of a week or a month, she was at least feeling better since she didn't need to wait day after day for something that never happened.

Getting back on track, moving days were always an event that happened every couple months. Ruby didn't understand it at the time, nor would she being the young toddler she was, but these moves were for strict security purposes. They could never afford to be in the same place for more than three months at a time, especially since most of the crimes they pulled off were those around the warehouses. Fortunately, they always managed to evacuate just in time before police and security dropped in on whatever warehouse they were recently at, although they did accidentally leave a few pieces showing there were people left behind from time to time.

It's not like they were simple about these moves either. Sometimes they moved somewhere new, sometimes they moved back into the last place they were at. On top of that, they would often pull off crimes farther away from the warehouses, occasionally on the complete other side of the city. And at others? They would pull off crimes right next to them. It was the perfect way to throw the police off their trails, minus a few close calls.

It was also at times like these Ruby wouldn't be able to play with her mother for awhile, which she understood...slightly. She would always be busy with the moving stuff from everything they lived with, the toys Ruby enjoyed so much, and her mattress that would be shipped through the trucks. There wouldn't be any time for Ruby to play with mommy for the next hour or so until they settled everything out here. Even Big Sissy Ne-Ne would be too busy with the moving stuff, often in charge of managing the henchmen and White Fang Members that were shipping everything off in separate parts of the city.

They could never afford to ship all the trucks at once out of fear of arousing suspicion. It would seem strange if every truck left at the same time or appeared in the same street. There were only so many reasons you could explain why there were 20 identical trucks driving at the same time.

Unbeknownst to Ruby herself, her mother had a secret behind all this. This wasn't just another moving day- this was going to be the last time they would have to move.

Hopefully at least.

With the early funding the current leaders of the White Fang granted them, Cinder officially had enough lien around to afford a new home within a penthouse suite of the nearby skyscraper. It was going to be a surprise for the young toddler, as Cinder herself, as well as her cohorts, just managed to finish the final paperwork that would ensure their luxurious stay within the apartment for the next few years. It was a lot of funding after all.

To be fair, the funding was also because of Ruby's sole existence. After going into detail about Ruby's mere existence, the Belladonnas were touched that a single teenager would go out of her way to raise a baby girl she had only met. They were still a bit peeved with the events that followed beforehand, but it was thanks to Cinder's honesty that they had gained the Belladonna's support at all.

But much like Cinder herself wanted to do, the intention for the funding was to find a save place for the young toddler, a better home where she wouldn't be put harm's way. Obviously, right up affording a new house was out of the question, even if they had the funding to do it.

Aside from the fact there wasn't nearly enough support to do so, living in an apartment would've been safer. If they bought a house, should a crime go awry, it would've been easier to track new houses within the city at the same time crimes were going off. But if they lived within a penthouse, from one of the many dozens upon dozens of apartment complexes within the city, it would've been harder to track down any crime syndicate.

And this wasn't just a home for Ruby and her "family" to move to temporarily again, this was going to be a permanent establishment, provided nothing severe happened that would force them to run away from the new home.

It was truly going to be a happier time. All they needed to do was finishing packing and sign some papers at the front desk of the apartments, and then they could enjoy their glorious new home.

"Can I help?" Ruby asked sweetly.

Like always, this just earned a smile from the fiery mother. Anytime Cinder was seen working on something or had some papers to work on, Ruby's first instinct was to ask if she could help. Of course, she was too young to even understand half of what they were doing, but it was a sweetness Cinder admired all the same. "Why don't you go see if Uncle Roman needs help, sweetie?"

"M'kay!" Ruby said excitedly as she toddled out the door.

When it came to visiting "Uncle Roman", that was secretly Cinder's way of telling Roman to watch over Ruby for awhile. It was the only way Cinder could get Ruby out of the way so they could work while pretending she was doing something useful. It's not like she wouldn't have accepted actual help, but there was only so much a three-and-a-half-year-old could actually do.

Like always, Ruby hummed excitedly to herself as she marched down the halls. Like any moving day, the henchmen were busy walking all around, carrying various boxes as they continued loading the outside trucks from the now-empty rooms. And while none of them showed it, they were all terrified of the wandering toddler, giving her plenty of room as they went about their work.

Obviously, the men and women were nowhere near afraid of the small toddler. The problem was the toddler's adoptive mother. From broken bones to being set on fire, they would hear horrifying tales of people who've either bumped into the small girl, pushed her intentionally out of anger of something she did, or simply yelled at her to the point of crying and then some. Her mother was like an Eagle; mess with her chick and she was going to make you suffer.

And unlike horror stories which were usually made up, these weren't stories. They were facts. Horrifying facts. Horribly horrifying facts.

At least finding Roman at the entrance was a piece of cake. Like Ruby usually did when Cinder asked her to make sure Roman was still working, she found him with his usual board and paper, writing down information of what was being delivered and what was being taken out of the warehouse. After all, with how big the organization was, they had to keep constant inventory of everything going in and out of the facilities.

And man it was boring. At least it couldn't get any worse, right?

"Hi Un'co Woman!" Roman could only roll his eyes with a groan, knowing what this sound meant. First, it was the sound of the annoying toddler. He didn't have anything against her or her voice directly, but whenever she was around he had to drop whatever he was doing and watch her to keep her out of trouble. Two, this meant Cinder wanted him to watch her for the day, regardless of whatever he was doing.

"Ugh, what do you want, kid?" Roman tried and failed to hide his annoyance, even if Ruby couldn't comprehend his tone.

"Mommy said to make suwe you were doing youw work." The giddy toddler stated. Once again, Roman knew what that truly meant.

"I'm fine kid." Roman grumbled silently again. He couldn't afford to drop everything he was currently doing since hey only just started taking inventory. And the last thing he wanted to do at this point was play babysitter. Fortunately, children were easy to manipulate. And if there was one thing he was good at, it was the art of manipulation. "Say, I know something you could do to help."

"Weally?" Ruby couldn't help but grow excited at this. She always loved proving herself responsible to mommy, and helping with the business they always did would be a great way to do it!

"Yeah, see that door over there?" Roman pointed over to the lone closed door. It was nothing more than an exit nobody ever used, both for security purposes and the fact it was on the complete other side of the warehouse. "I need you to guard that door, and make sure no one goes through it, ok?"

"Kay!" Ruby ran to the door in excitement as she scurried over.

This was the perfect way to deal with the situation. It gave Roman plenty of time to continue his paperwork and inventory, and make sure that Ruby stayed out of trouble all the same! After all, if she was just watching over a door, there's no way anything bad could happen. The door was never used anyway, so how could anyone expect something from the door? And if Ruby just stayed with the door, she was out of trouble, and more importantly, out of the henchmen's way.

At the same time, Ruby was excited about all of this! Here she was, one-hundred percent certified door-guarder. There was no way anyone was going to come in or out of this door, not as Ruby marched back and forth and strut from place to place! She would defeat all evil intruders who dared enter the warehouse, for her name wasn't Ruby Falls!

...Which, sadly, it wasn't, but that's besides the point. And the best part was how proud her mommy was going to be when all was said and done. She was going to love Ruby even more and more, especially when Ruby would go on to state how she defeated all evildoers who dared crossed her path! It was going to be the greatest victory Ruby had ever known! She would remain diligent, she would remain aware, she would be-

* _knock_ *

* _knock_ *

* _knock_ *

Ruby blinked to herself as she looked around.

* _knock_ *

* _knock_ *

Then her attention shifted to the door. Could it be? Was someone actually trying to invade the fortress?! Not on Ruby's watch! She would defend the sacred land in the name of her mother and her four fathers! Or at least that's what it said in the story books mommy would read to her on some nights.

With a curious expression on her face, she slowly made her way to the door, jumping slightly to reach the handle as she pulled the door open, and what stood before her was even more surprising.

It was a white girl. Not just in terms of skin, but literally nearly all white. She had a small white dress, white hair with a strange-shaped ponytail on the right, light-blue eyes, a pair of small white gloves, and snow-white shoes. Interestingly, she was also sporting a pure white, small, backpack that fit the young girl. She might've been around Blake's height, at least to Ruby's opinion, as she still stood about a good near-foot taller than Ruby herself.

The only question was, who was she?

"Hello-" The young girl began to greet politely as she was looking up. She only paused as she realized there was no one standing in her view, expecting some sort of adult to be there. Instead, to even more of her surprise, she slowly lowered her faze down until she came across Ruby, who probably only came up to her belly. "-there..."

Ok, this was not what she expected. She expected some sort of adult or at least a teenager to greet her at the door, but to be fair she was asking around a warehouse. Not just a warehouse, but somewhere she was hoping had open space for her.

There was a bit of a silence between the two as they just stared at each other, blinking to themselves as they tried to wonder what to say. The girl wanted to speak to an adult, not some baby, and Ruby was confused about who the mysterious invader was. Was she the one Roman was so worried about getting in here? Was he expecting her to be some intruder bent on world domination?!

"Eh hem, um...greetings!" The girl greeted politely, extending her hand out for a shake. Ruby stared at the girl's hand, looking around thinking there was some sort of gift or a treat she was trying to give Ruby. After staring at her hand for at least several seconds, an awkward expression filled the young girl's face as she lowered her arm once more. "Um...Is your mother employed at this establishment?"

"Mommy?" That's the only word coming from the young six-year-old that Ruby recognized. "She's busy packin'." Ruby explained, looking back inside. Gazing past the young toddler, the white-haired girl noticed several different people carrying and loading storage crates in several trucks within the warehouse. Based on the scene alone, she assumed Ruby's mother was one of the workers storing the crates within the trucks, but with the strange masks they were all wearing, it was hard to tell.

The only thing she could tell was that the man with the top-hat clearly wasn't her mother. "Umm...are you guys busy with something?"

"Yeah, we're moving today!" Ruby said happily.

"Shoot!" The other girl grumbled to herself as she rubbed her chin. She needed this place to be open, but if what the toddler said was accurate, then they were moving their entire business to somewhere else, possibly a whole new city entirely! "Well... I guess I can't do much if that's the case. Thank you for your time, miss." The young girl said politely with a curtsy.

Now Ruby was really confused as she watched the curtsy, seeing the young girl hold both sides of her dress and give a slight bow. "Do you have to go potty?" The girl could only shoot a weird look back.

"Don't you know what a curtsy is?"

"A curthy?" Ruby repeated in confusion. That about answered her question, rolling her eyes slightly as she pinched between her eyes.

"The unenlightened are truly unremarkable..." She mumbled.

"...You wanna play with markers?" Ruby couldn't figure out a single thing about the girl or the strange words she was using. Even Blake never used such big words like these.

"Forget it," the girl groaned, "I'll need to find another business to move into." And with another bow, the young girl walked off once more to the streets.

Now that caught Ruby's attention. With a few seconds to herself, Ruby's eyes suddenly widened with realization: this girl was moving too! She was doing the same thing that her mommy was doing, and she was going to be moving too! Who knows, maybe she was moving with Ruby and her mother!

Thinking back on it, maybe that's why Roman wanted Ruby to keep an eye on the door, because he expected this girl to show up! And he wanted Ruby to keep an eye on it and wait for the girl to show up and come with them! It made so much sense now!

The only issue now was, the girl was leaving. Maybe Ruby said something wrong? Maybe she should've said or explained herself a little differently? Whatever the case, she couldn't allow the young girl to get away. She had to finish her job, just as Roman said. Otherwise, her mother would be very sad, and there's no way Ruby could accept that.

And with a determined look on her face, and a nod to herself, Ruby took off after the girl, despite the fact she had no sense of direction or any knowledge of the outside world. All she did know was that she had to chase the girl down while she was still in her sights, leaving the door completely open in the process...

...

...

 ** _* RUBY'S Q'n'A PANEL*_**

The spotlights came on as they danced around the colorful room the sounds of drums playing as they did till they centered to the middle of the room. There stood a small light-blue plastic table, with a scribbled sign on the front of it, and a stuffed animal on each side; one giraffe, and one elephant. And from behind the table, the plastic green chair shook as a small figure climbed up.

And what better figure than the star of our show, Ruby Falls, wearing an oversized dress shirt and fake glasses.

"Hi evweyone! Wuby here, host of the Wuby's Q'n'A panel!" The toddler greeted happily. "What is the Q'n'A panel you ask?...Weally, I don't know. But my mommy said it was a way to answer questions people may have about our series, or univewse, and othew stuff."

"Like I said, I don't know mush about this place, but all I do know is that I have a lot of fun kes'tions from other people! Fow example," Ruby paused as she pulled out several pieces of paper, somehow being able to read them despite having no ability to read, "Pegasister60 asked me, what makes my mommy happy?"

Ruby poked her chin curiously as she thought. "Well, wots of stuff does!" She said excitedly. "She likes it when we play together, she's happy a lot when I'm happy, she likes it when I make her pwetty pictures, and she also likes it when I make it to da potty on time! I don't know what that means though..." She rubbed her head in thought as she read the next question.

"The next question is, what do I do when mommy's away?". Well, I dunno what I did when I was weally little, but nowadays whenever mommy's away, I pway with Big Sissy Ne-Ne! We play lots of games, we take bat's togethew when mommy's gone in the morning, and we make my favewit cookies evewyday too! She's da best big sissy in the world!"

And with an excited glee, the three-year-old looked at the final question. "Last kes'tion. Have I evew peaked outside the wawehouse...what's a wawehouse?" With a confused shrug, she looked to the camera once more.

"I twied to once I think when I was wittlew. I saw a door open one night when I was wookin' for mommies woom cause I had a bad dweam, and even doh I wasn't supposed to, I saw wight coming from the door, and the house was scawy since it had less light, so I went towards it. When I looked outside, I saw so many pwetty spawkly tings in the sky, they were so pwetty! But befowe I could go out anymore, big sissy Nene found me, and I swept with her instead. I think she told mommy about it, it's hawd to tell since she nevew talks, but mommy said not to go outside anymowe, and that I could start sweeping with her evewynight instead. "

"Ruby, it's nap time." Cinder called from out of the camera's view.

"Comin'!" Ruby waved to the camera once more with a happy grin. "Dat's all the time we have today, forks! If anyone else wants to ask a kes'tion, be sure to leave a review thingie in the reviews first, then ask you're kes'tions! Bye bye!" With a hop from her chair, Ruby could be heard giggling as she met up with Cinder, the sound of a click followed by the lights turning off.

"Say sweetie, what were you doing just now?'

"Nothin'..."

...

...

...

 **A/N: And another chapter down! I'm sorry if it's short, I was struggling to get even a start on this thing all honesty, but I had another reason to get this posted soon- the new "Ruby's Q'n'A" section! These are sections at the end of every episode/chapter where Ruby, or another character from the series, will answer any and all questions you guys might have!**

 **In order to even have your questions answered though, you have to review a chapter first and then ask your question. and it can't just be a simple "good story! *question here*", I really wanna hear your guys' thoughts on these things XP. The longer/more reviews, the better. + at this rate, I've decided to do bonus episodes again!**

 **For those familiar with them, every time someone reaches the 10th mark of my series, they're entitled to a free requested episode they wanna see. The episodes are usually non-canon, so they can be of anything you guys want to of the main series. They can take place now or in the future, or even in the past when Ruby was a baby. And obviously the more creative the idea, the better the bonus episode! So be creative if you realize you're about to hit the 10th mark! And even then don't worry about asking questions. Whoever reviews will get a single question answered ^^! They can be of anything from Ruby's life, Ruby's "family", and so forth, so ask away!**

 **As always, leave a like, fave, and review if you liked the story, and continue to support the future work if you can!**


	7. Preview Update

**Pre-A/N: Ok this is sorta my pre-author note's message, with some news, mostly from my absence. Sorry for the delay here folks, hit a bit of a writer's block but I am slowly getting back into it as you can see here, so hopefully I'll have some stuff soon. Hopefully this small bit will be enough to tie those die-hard fans down until I get the full update done, so till then, enjoy what I can give ^^.**

 **Also, came to my attention I never gave a specific age range for the characters at Ruby's current point in time soooooo...**

 **Cinder and Roman: Both mid-to-late Teens; and for those questioning that either of the two could possibly be in their late twenties or early 30s in present day, i'd like to point out a rwby chibi bit (the greatest spin off series ever ^^!) teased about Cinder's possibly-old age, so while not giving an exact point in time, it doesn't rule out the possibility that she could be as old as thirty or so. Heck even without that, c'mon people, it's anime: NO ONE EVER LOOKS THEIR AGE XD!**

 **As for Neo, I'd give her being in her early preteens, possibly 11 at most, so possibly 7-8 years older than Ruby.**

 **Anyway, please enjoy the rest of what I have written from this point onward!**

 **A/N Well with the growing success of my current fic, I decided to officially cancel my danganronpa fic ^^ I know I know, you all wanted it too, so without further ado, lets continue this one until it's indefinite hiatus and cancellation like the last fic. I'm so confident in my decision that I won't even get into my Angry-fan-bunker for another five minutes...three minutes...you know on second thought I'll just type from there.**

 **So without further ado, and without the Laser-pointed rifles targeting my crotch, enjoy ^^!**

 **...and yes this was all a joke, danganronpa is still on XP...**

...

...

...

"Phew, glad that's done." Cinder sighed wiping the sweat from her brow as she made her way to the loading docks with the young preteen, aka Neo.

For the last half-hour the two girls were cleaning up the separate rooms the heads of the Organization used, including the small room used as Ruby's playroom. Today was going to be a grand and glorious day for the heads as they planned on moving to the penthouse of the nearby apartment complexes. It was the first step they needed to become a full-fledged organization as it finally provided them with better living accommodations, not to mention a safer place for Ruby herself.

It was only thanks to Cinder and Ruby alone they managed to gain the support of the White Fang's financial support, the money intended to be used to find a better living space for the toddler. And what better place than a luxurious penthouse of the nearby building! It was both, somewhere close to any of the warehouses they used for their operations, and a relaxing home to fall back to in case they needed to go into hiding.

On top of that, with the new support they were going to be receiving at the end of each month, they were going to have a much easier lifestyle, so long as they could continue to gain the trust and support of the current White Fang leaders.

"Did you finish packing Ruby's stuff?" Cinder asked Neo as the two left for the loading area. She smiled at the small nod the multicolored girl gave her before looking to Roman, the latter still deep in the inventory management of his papers. "Everything good here?"

The orange-haired leader gave a small nod as he continued to write. "Yeah, just about. Just a few more things to check and the loading should be done."

"That's grea-..."Cinder paused as she gazed around the room. "Where's Ruby?" Roman rolled his eyes as always. Aside from the fact this woman wasn't spending just ten seconds to look for her before asking straight away, this was always the first question that took priority whenever she greeted him. It was an annoyance he still had yet to get used to.

"She's over there." He gestured towards the door on the other side of the warehouse with his pen, not even gazing in the same direction. Even with the two girls following the direction of his pen, neither of them saw the playful little toddler. A twinge of worry began to creep in Cinder's heart, not liking the sight she was greeted with.

"Over where?"

"I just said, over th-" The room went silent as Roman gazed in the same direction.

About fifty feet from them, in the direction they were looking, there was a door. It was an open door. It was an open door with no Ruby. Most importantly, there was no Ruby. There was just an open door. Yet strangely enough, the sudden chill in the air wasn't coming from the door, or the weight of the situation itself. It came from the flaming girl who placed her hand on the back of his right shoulder.

"Roman." There was no tone in her voice as she spoke almost robotically. "I want to know. Where is Ruby?" There wasn't any force to her grip, nor anger behind her words. All Roman could feel was a sense of dread. The same dread that caused his spine to tingle as his bones chilled.

Someone who yelled at Ruby out of surprise would get a scolding, at worse a slap to the face. A person who yelled at Ruby angrily would get smacked down by Cinder, Neo if they were lucky. The unlucky person who opened the door too fast and struck Ruby in the face would end up with their leg backwards. Anybody foolish enough to, for whatever reason, slap or strike Ruby out of pure anger would be burned alive for a grand ten seconds.

This? This was a new one. This was going to be a brand new scene before him. Ruby was missing. No, not just missing. She was missing from where Roman last saw her at a door that was previously closed. Now that door appeared to be open, and there wasn't any Ruby in his sight. If there was any form of human shield that could protect one from Cinder's wrath, it was Ruby. And right now she was the only thing missing.

"She's uh-" The minute he started to stutter, her grip tightened immensely. No matter how much he tried to force himself, he couldn't resist the urge to turn his head around and look back. The stare Cinder returned was nothing like he had ever seen. It was a simple, calming stare without a smile. It didn't appear to have any emotion to it or anger, but appearances weren't anything in this case. What was there was an immense amount of tension and atmosphere. The weight of the entire room slowly became engulfing as Roman choked to say something.

All the while, from behind Cinder, Neo drew a simple picture on her cue cards. Showing it back to him, the simple line drawing revealed to him pretty much what he could expect; a simple picture of two nuts that were roasting in the middle of a fire. The symbolism was enough to get Roman to speak, although what came out of his mouth was something he would truly regret.

"I don't know..."


	8. Ruby's Day Out Part 1

A/N Well with the growing success of my current fic, I decided to officially cancel my danganronpa fic ^^ I know I know, you all wanted it too, so without further ado, lets continue this one until it's indefinite hiatus and cancellation like the last fic. I'm so confident in my decision that I won't even get into my Angry-fan-bunker for another five minutes...three minutes...you know on second thought I'll just type from there.

So without further ado, and without the Laser-pointed rifles targeting my crotch, enjoy ^^!

...and yes this was all a joke, danganronpa is still on XP...

...

...

...

"Phew, glad that's done." Cinder sighed wiping the sweat from her brow as she made her way to the loading docks with the young preteen, aka Neo.

For the last half-hour the two girls were cleaning up the separate rooms the heads of the Organization used, including the small room used as Ruby's playroom. Today was going to be a grand and glorious day for the heads as they planned on moving to the penthouse of the nearby apartment complexes. It was the first step they needed to become a full-fledged organization as it finally provided them with better living accommodations, not to mention a safer place for Ruby herself.

It was only thanks to Cinder and Ruby alone they managed to gain the support of the White Fang's financial support, the money intended to be used to find a better living space for the toddler. And what better place than a luxurious penthouse of the nearby building! It was both, somewhere close to any of the warehouses they used for their operations, and a relaxing home to fall back to in case they needed to go into hiding.

On top of that, with the new support they were going to be receiving at the end of each month, they were going to have a much easier lifestyle, so long as they could continue to gain the trust and support of the current White Fang leaders.

"Did you finish packing Ruby's stuff?" Cinder asked Neo as the two left for the loading area. She smiled at the small nod the multicolored girl gave her before looking to Roman, the latter still deep in the inventory management of his papers. "Everything good here?"

The orange-haired leader gave a small nod as he continued to write. "Yeah, just about. Just a few more things to check and the loading should be done."

"That's grea-..."Cinder paused as she gazed around the room. "Where's Ruby?" Roman rolled his eyes as always. Aside from the fact this woman wasn't spending just ten seconds to look for her before asking straight away, this was always the first question that took priority whenever she greeted him. It was an annoyance he still had yet to get used to.

"She's over there." He gestured towards the door on the other side of the warehouse with his pen, not even gazing in the same direction. Even with the two girls following the direction of his pen, neither of them saw the playful little toddler. A twinge of worry began to creep in Cinder's heart, not liking the sight she was greeted with.

"Over where?"

"I just said, over th-" The room went silent as Roman gazed in the same direction.

About fifty feet from them, in the direction they were looking, there was a door. It was an open door. It was an open door with no Ruby. Most importantly, there was no Ruby. There was just an open door. Yet strangely enough, the sudden chill in the air wasn't coming from the door, or the weight of the situation itself. It came from the flaming girl who placed her hand on the back of his right shoulder.

"Roman." There was no tone in her voice as she spoke almost robotically. "I want to know. Where is Ruby?" There wasn't any force to her grip, nor anger behind her words. All Roman could feel was a sense of dread. The same dread that caused his spine to tingle as his bones chilled.

Someone who yelled at Ruby out of surprise would get a scolding, at worse a slap to the face. A person who yelled at Ruby angrily would get smacked down by Cinder, Neo if they were lucky. The unlucky person who opened the door too fast and struck Ruby in the face would end up with their leg backwards. Anybody foolish enough to, for whatever reason, slap or strike Ruby out of pure anger would be burned alive for a grand ten seconds.

This? This was a new one. This was going to be a brand new scene before him. Ruby was missing. No, not just missing. She was missing from where Roman last saw her at a door that was previously closed. Now that door appeared to be open, and there wasn't any Ruby in his sight. If there was any form of human shield that could protect one from Cinder's wrath, it was Ruby. And right now she was the only thing missing.

"She's uh-" The minute he started to stutter, her grip tightened immensely. No matter how much he tried to force himself, he couldn't resist the urge to turn his head around and look back. The stare Cinder returned was nothing like he had ever seen. It was a simple, calming stare without a smile. It didn't appear to have any emotion to it or anger, but appearances weren't anything in this case. What was there was an immense amount of tension and atmosphere. The weight of the entire room slowly became engulfing as Roman choked to say something.

All the while, from behind Cinder, Neo drew a simple picture on her cue cards. Showing it back to him, the simple line drawing revealed to him pretty much what he could expect; a simple picture of two nuts that were roasting in the middle of a fire. The symbolism was enough to get Roman to speak, although what came out of his mouth was something he would truly regret.

"I don't know..."

...

...

"Hmm..." The white-haired girl rubbed her chin as she looked at the GPS on her scroll.

For the last half-hour, the young girl was trying to figure out where to go. There were only a handful of places where people were both, hiring for a job, and offering bed and expenditures at the same time. It might look strange in some instances to see a young girl try and accept a job from, well, anywhere in the city, but with someone as prestigious as her, getting a job would only be natural.

She also had to admit, for a large town, the place was very classy. Donut and coffee shops every other mile, general stores within the outer layer of the city, people walking by and by, and plenty of different buildings cluttering up the city of all shapes and sizes. It was a bit fun seeing so many new places around the city like this, but it definitely wasn't the most impressive city she's been to.

At least there was some wonder and enjoyment from seeing a new place.

"Hmm maybe some sort of business is looking for an assistant..." The white-haired girl mumbled to herself.

"Maybe you thould ask your mommy?"

"Nah, she wouldn't understand what I'm doing, she'd just yell at me.

"When's bweakfast?"

"We'll grab something in half an hour or so..."

"When are we done?"

"When I find a place to work and live."

"Oh."

"Mh Hm..."

"..."

"..."

"...!" The white-haired girl's eyes suddenly widened as she came to a halt. "Ack-!'

"Ahh!"

*crack*

"Ohhh darn it!"

Too many events occurred within the last five seconds of the girl's realization.

First off, she was being followed. She was going all this way, crossing who knows how many streets, dozens upon hundreds of random people she didn't know, and numerous roads she only payed attention to while crossing. All the while exploring through her scroll for the numerous factories, businesses, and other places a six-year-old like her would be able to find work at. It didn't matter how young she was, she felt confident that her studies were more qualified than that of any business graduate.

And only now did she realize she was being followed.

It didn't entirely help that whoever was following her was being quiet up until this very point. There wasn't much of any indication otherwise that someone else was following her. Like any busy city, people were walking here and there and vehicles were making their way from day to day places. So anything like the sound of footsteps or nearby shadows wouldn't have grabbed her attention.

Third and foremost, the fright she got upon turning around and seeing a younger face shorter than her staring right at her face. It's not like the face scared her or anything, but the simple surprise of it all was enough for her to let out a startled yelp, which in turn caused the toddler herself to yelp in surprise.

And as if the number of events wasn't long enough, the finale of this little endeavor resulted in the white-haired girl dropping her very own scroll, her only means of directions, details on this town, prices of all-around places, and so forth.

Basically it was her one and only guide within this whole place.

"And I just got that scroll two months ago!" The girl pouted.

"You're weally clumsy." Ruby stated bluntly.

"Mmmmh..." Shockingly, the white-haired girl puffed her cheeks at this annoyance. "What are you doing here?"

"Movin' wit'chu of couwse." The toddler replied excitedly. That actually confused the older one to no end.

"Moving?"

"Yeah, you said you were gonna move too!"

"Move...?" The young girl lifted her head as she stared into thought, trying to remember any possible conversation she had with her. "I was moving wit- Wait, you mean when I met you earlier at your factory?"

Like any three year old, Ruby just gave her a curious stare. She always referred to her place as home so for anyone else to refer to it differently was just weird to her. "Fat...tree?" She tried repeating. All the white girl could do was pinch her nose between her eyes, grumbling in frustration.

"Huff, look, will you just go back home already? I'm going to need to get a new scroll and I can't waste my time chatting with you."

"But I thought you were moving with uth?" Clearly the lisping toddler wasn't getting it.

"No-" She paused briefly as she took a deep breath, trying to remain calm and keeping from making a scene. "I meeeeean, I'm going somewhere else. Wherever your family is going, I'm not going. Okay?"

"...Ohhhh.." There was only one logical conclusion Ruby could obtain from all of this. "You'we a wiar! You'we not coming with us at all!"

Facepalm.

All the girl could do was facepalm. No matter how many times she tried putting it through Ruby's head, she still wasn't grasping the entire point she was trying to make: She was going somewhere completely different. She wasn't going anywhere near wherever Ruby or her family was going. There wasn't even a plan to go with them.

At the very least, she finally understood the not-going-with-them part. All she could do now was continue in the way Ruby was understanding it.

"Yes, I lied. I'm not going with you." She replied calmly as she forced herself a smile. "So if you would politely go back home, I'm sure your mommy is waiting with warm cookies or something." She hoped she could at least understand that much, turning around as she prepared to depart once more.

...For about three seconds. That's how long she lasted till she felt someone tugging on her dress again, Judging from the mere grip and pressure of the tug, she could easily tell what was holding her back. "Now what?"

"Where do I wiv?" It was that one simple question that brought sudden worry to the white girl.

There's no way she had any idea where she lived at this point. Sure, finding her "home" was easy, or at least to locate, but remembering where was the problem. She had her face buried in her phone for the last half-hour, only taking brief glances up to avoid walking into anything and checking the streets. On top of that, she barely paid attention to the names of locations, only prioritizing in finding anything business related where she could work.

"How should I know?" The six-year-old grumbled softly as she moaned at her shattered scroll.

"But you're duh one who kidnapped me!"

Double facepalm.

"Since when did I kidnap you?!"

"Sinth we met."

Ok now the migraine was becoming an issue.

"Look, I don't know who you are, or where you live. So why don't you just go back to your home or factory or whatever, and go see mommy?"

"But I dunno where dat is!" The toddler began to tear up.

"Well I'm sorry, but I can't help you. Why don't you just go back the way you came? I'm sure your mommy is looking for you too so why don't you just try it on your own or something? I'm busy!"

"B-Bu...Bu..." The white-haired girl grew briefly confused at the sudden twitching expression coming upon the toddler's face before dreading what was coming next.

"Waaaaaaaahahahaaaaa!" The pitch of the shriek alone was enough to send shivers down the white hair's spine, but for a more worrying reason than just the sound. "Moooommmmyyyyyy!" The toddler cried, streams of tears rolling down her eyes and nose.

It was attracting attention. Lots and lots of attention. From simple passerby, children walking to or from school, to simple families out for a walk, all eyes turned to the attention of the toddler crying next to the older girl. And it wasn't even the bad publicity that worried her!

It was the mere publicity itself that worried her. She didn't want any attention period, and the crying girl next to her was making that all but impossible.

"Whoa, hey hey hey! Calm down! Shhhhh!" She desperately tried to shush the young child, sweating nervously as she looked around. Already she could see several couples eyeing them and whispering to one another curiously, fearing what they could be saying or wondering amongst themselves. "I-It-It's gonna be ok! Just calm down!"

Surprisingly enough, the desperate pleading wasn't enough to reach the little girl. "B-Bu-But I want mom-moommmmyyyy ehahahaaaaa!" She continued to cry.

"N-No, no, no I swear! I'll help you find your mommy!" To her relief, the crying began to subside a bit as the toddler wiped her face barehanded.

"Ehahahehehh...sniff..." As much as she wanted to comfort the young toddler, or at least get her to stop drawing attention to themselves, she couldn't get past the snot and tears covering the girl's face.

"That's...better...J-Just wipe your face with something-"

*SNRRRRRRRKKKKK*

"Ahhh! I didn't mean on my dress!" The six-year-old frantically tried to wipe the mucus from her dress, only causing the stickiness to spread further. "Ghhhhhhh!" The girl had to grit her teeth tightly to refrain from possibly scaring the child any moreso.

"Hic...s-sowwy..." Ruby sniffled as she continued to dry some of her tears.

"I-It's...ok..." The young kid lied as she forced herself to smile, twitchily. "Anyway, I think we should go find someone who can help you find your mommy, ok?"

"Mkay...you pwomise?"

That was a fortunate sign that Ruby would finally stop crying. So with as much dignity as she could muster, seeing how she was still wearing a snot-stained dress, the young girl curtsied with a sincere smile.

"I promise it on my name as a Schnee." She decreed.

"Beth you."

"?" Well that was the last thing the young girl expected to hear. "E-Excuse me?"

"I beth'ed you!" Ruby said with a slight hiccup. "Mommy say to say it evewytime someone sneethes."

"...Oh..." Now she was facepalming herself but mentally, realizing what she meant. "Oh no no, I wasn't sneezing, I was referring to my name. I am Weiss Schnee, at your service." She repeated with another curtsy.

"Why would your lath name be a sneethe?" Ruby asked curiously.

"Eh heh heh..." Weiss forced herself to chuckle as she she Ruby closer. She was less concerned with the tears still streaming from her face and more worried about he crowds of people that were looking at her and Ruby earlier. To her relief, most of them began to walk on, minding their own business as they once were. Thankfully, she appeared to dodge a bullet, although she now had another priority to deal with.

Little Ruby.

There was no end to the frustration building up in her mind, simply thinking of everything she was going to need to do before going about her own business. She was going to have to find a police station, talk to an officer, and somehow convince them not to keep herself there so she didn't have to worry about them contacting anyone concerning. And she couldn't cut it with just some random person on the street; she HAD to find an actual police station to fix this situation.

She couldn't trust random people on the streets for obvious reasons. Whether they be liars, delinquents, or people who might be after her, her one and only option was to find a police station and obtain help there. Of course, the only issue that came from that was actually finding one to begin with, and that was easier said than done now that she didn't have her scroll on hand. And while she could've just as easily bought another one, but she couldn't take the chance some security guard would spot her and Ruby wandering around without any adult supervision, otherwise that would've guaranteed someone would call the authorities for both their parents.

And that she couldn't afford to handle.

Speaking of which, she almost forgot for a brief second that there was someone hugging her at her waist. If it wasn't for the sudden fidgeting and worried mumbling she was doing, she wouldn't have even noticed the look of worry on Ruby's face.

"What's wrong now?" Weiss asked curiously. She couldn't help but eye the strange toddler who was holding her hands between her legs.

"I gots to go potty!" She whined.

"...Ughhh..."

This was going to be a loooong day...

...

...

"Dust damn it!"

*WHAM*

Neo just watched with curiosity as the fiery witch banged on the wall again with her fist, unsure of what to say (if she could) to the raging mother. For the last ten minutes now, the vengeful mother was pacing back and forth pondering what to do. Up until this morning, she didn't dare even think something could go wrong, and look what happened! She sets Ruby off to be watched over by Roman, who's new name was now Cannon Fodder until she could calm down, discovers Ruby missing an hour later, and not even finding so much as a footprint of hers within the first half hour!

In retrospect, it could technically be seen as a good thing too. Considering they didn't find, thank dust, the ruined corpse of what could possibly be Ruby yet proved she was still out their and just fine. The problem though was that they couldn't afford to call the authorities on it out of worry and fear of them getting recognized by anyone from one of their heists. And they couldn't just go out screaming "Ruby" all over or they were bound to run into a police officer!

Geeze, did anyone else have this problem right now?!

At the very least, the shipments were done and the trucks were transported to their next warehouse location. But that didn't matter much if the heads of their organization weren't even around, much less capable, of leading them at this point.

Thus we find ourselves with the current predicament of trying to figure out what to do, the only thing Cinder continuing to do was think while rubbing her chin.

"This is what I get for taking my eyes off her...I shouldn't have let her out of my sight..." These were just a few of the things that Cinder mumbled to herself as she tried impossibly to calm down. At least Neo seemed to be thinking this as she wrote on her notebook paper again..

-TAKE DEEP BREATH!-

The ice cream girl wrote.

While she appreciated what thought she could give at this point, it did nothing to lessen the stress on the young adult.

"I know Neo, I know but...errrrgh!" Cinder grumbled as she practically pulled her hair out. "We can't go to the police because they may recognize us, and we can't go screaming in public and draw attention to ourselves." And she definitely couldn't afford to send her goons out to find her either. Aside from being able to trust almost none of them with Ruby, aside from Neo of course, it would look far too suspicious to see a bunch of people over the city looking for the same girl. And sadly, even if she did trust Neo enough, asking the nearly mute girl to go out and call for Ruby...something obviously didn't fit right with that.

As of this moment, there was only one option Cinder did consider, yet struggled to agree with until now.

"I'm going to go out on my own to look for her." She announced, taking the brief time to pull out a random grey hoodie from the boxes. "Head over to the other warehouse and make sure everyone and everything gets there in order. And be sure to wait there until either I show up, or Ruby does." She stated with slight concern as she left.

The latter bit was just a bunch of hopeful thinking on her part, but she knew that would've been too good to be true. Ruby didn't even know where they were heading to, but on the impossible chance Ruby somehow ended up at one of the warehouses she recognized through her toddlerhood, she just had to pray that she'd be safe.

With a mental sigh to herself and a silent but deep breath, Cinder strolled out the door as she slipped her hands through the hoodie's pocket nonchalantly, making sure her face and hair was completely covered by the hoodie itself. Maybe it would've seemed suspicious to some to see a person dressed as such, but in a city this big where people and fashion senses were numerous, she could definitely get by with just an odd look or two.

At the same time, Neo herself couldn't help but frown worriedly as she hugged her notebook tightly. Suffice to say, with all the feeding, changing, playing, cleaning, and bonding she did with Ruby as a baby, she couldn't help but admit she felt a sisterly attachment to the small toddler. She was surprised as any that Roman would even let Ruby out of his sight long enough to let something like this happened, but she didn't blame him as much as Cinder did.

Yet, all she could do was sit here. Sit here, waiting for some development to take place, and hope that Ruby would be found soon. And not that she didn't want to be out there trying to find little Ruby either! It's just that...presently...she was preoccupied with something...

"Errrghhghhgh..." Neo looked behind her again as she saw the still-charred corpse of Roman weakly lift his arm. "Iiiice..." With a silent sigh to herself, Neo picked up another ice pack from the cooler she was sitting on, handing it directly to Roman who hastily planted it directly on himself...specifically his crotch...

...

...

...

A/N: Hooftah! It's been awhile since i last posted anything, huh folks? Anyway glad to finally have this one out of the way, hoping the next one comes here sooner. Anyway be sure to leave a like, fave, and review if you enjoyed this chapter ^^! And be sure to ask many questions for Ruby's little Q'n'A panel she has at the end of each episode! Next episode will be hosted by Cinder herself, so if you have any questions for her, be sure to ask after your reviews ^^!


	9. Ruby's Q'n'A Panel 2

**A/N: Huzzah folks! Man i enjoyed the feedback I got from you peeps for the last chapter, lots of people excited and enjoying the last chapter and all it's cuteness ^^! As a reward for seeing such dedicated fans, and to make up for the lack of posts between here and the last one, I decided to roll ahead and do a Ruby Q'n'A Skit here instead of waiting till the end of the next episode (god however long that'll take...) Anyway, please enjoy as we go on to answer some of the very-curious questions asked by the fans ^^!**

...

...

...

*RUBY'S Q'n'A PANEL*

The spotlights came on as they danced around the colorful room the sounds of drums playing as they did till they centered to the middle of the room. There stood a small light-blue plastic table, with a scribbled sign on the front of it, and a stuffed animal on each side; one giraffe, and one elephant.

Now as opposed to the previous viewing, there were some subtle, albeit notable, changes. For starters, there were little patterns of flames in the back, with the wallpaper also taking a natural fiery-red color, bright yet warm at the same time. And while there were some remains of the previous viewing, such as several stuffed animals strewn about, there was a much taller plastic table as well as a simple wooden chair behind it.

And with a rather interesting use of fire to make her entrance, the entirety of the chair was engulfed in a burst of flame before Cinder herself materialized from it.

"Hello there, everyone. My name is Cinder Falls, and this is..." Cinder couldn't help but scratch her chin nervously as she looked to the side, off camera. "Sweetie, what is this again?"

"Wuby's K'n'A panel!" The toddler could be heard answering.

With a simple nod, Cinder smiled back to the camera once more, "Ah yes. This is my Ruby's Q-...I mean "K'n'A" panel..." She felt a bit awkward forcing herself to misspell the word intentionally, but she just couldn't bring herself to let Ruby down in any way about this, seeing how excited she was to see her mommy do this.

"Much like the last one...that Ruby and her sister set up without my knowledge...Today we'll be answering numerous questions asked about my little Angel's life growing up for all you fans out there!" The once happy smile slowly became a bit more twisted with each word after. "You people...who've been...simply put STALKING my daughter...for almost three years now...since she was an infant...YOU SICK PEDO-!"

*Bzzzzzzzt*

There was a brief shot of a demonic rage-filled glare engulfing Cinder's face before the screen cut to static. With the typical sound of static filling the screen for about three seconds, it soon cleared up as the scene viewed Cinder once more, with a small blush to her face and her eyes closed.

"Eh hem...sorry about that, that was...out of line..." There was a very notable sweat dripping from Cinder's forehead, but not out of embarrassment for herself. Off to the side, the sound of what appeared to be a child whimpering could be heard. As if the only thing that could upset Cinder from the current situation, she looked off with a small mixed expression of a smile and a frown. "R-Ruby, sweetie, it's alright, I'm not mad or anything, okay?"

"Sniff...k-kay..." Ruby could be heard whimpering.

 _I'm already regretting this..._ Cinder thought to herself before smiling to the camera once more. "So, yes, I'm here to answer some questions her fans," she paused briefly as she looked off to the side, "and some very questionable people," and turned to the camera once more, "have been wondering." And with the show ready to start, she happily pull out several pieces of paper from under the table.

"So, let's begin!" Her eyes scanned the papers curiously. "First question is from someone named THB4...actually, coincidence aside..., the first FOUR questions are from him... or her...What kind of name is- Nevermind! Let's begin!" Cinder quickly shook off any confusion or questions she would bring up. She was doing this for Ruby after all.

...And she still wanted to make it up to her for suddenly snapping a few minutes ago.

"First question: If Ruby is crying when you find her are you going to incinerate who ever is with her?"

"Hmm," Cinder thought for a moment how to detail this appropriately for her child watching, "well...I suppose it depends on the situation for the most part...ehh...well I mean..." She couldn't help but chuckle nervously as she scratched the back of her head. "Err I mean, I'm completely fine with it and everything, hahaha! I-I mean I just give them a stern warning and make them say they're sorry-"

"Yeah!" Ruby could be heard speaking up from off camera. "And aftew, dey end up ca'shing on fiwe anyway! So dey get punished by something anyway."

"Hahaha, yeah...weird...timing..." There was nothing filling Cinder's head but awkwardness. While Ruby wasn't oblivious to knowing her mother's magic and manipulation with fire, she wasn't entirely aware the people who scared or were mean to her were also being punished by her mother's literal fiery vengeance.

"Of course," she continued, "there are times when more...severe punishment is needed. Like the idiot who burst a door open too early a few months back. Even knowing Ruby was in the room with me, he had no issue with practically kicking open the door and hurting my dear sweetie."

"He was a weal dummyhead!" Ruby cursed.

"Yes, he was, wasn't he? But do you remember what happened after?"

"Yeah!" Ruby's tone grew more excited as she answered. "You did dis magic twick where you tuwned his weg backwawds!"

"I did, didn't I?" Despite the sincere smile she returned to the camera, there was a strange atmosphere of warning she was giving off. "A lot of people would think I overreacted to the moron who ended up in a leg cast for the next month...they were quick to shut up about it though."

Warning received.

"Now for question 2: I know Roman has a new name but eill he be getting other punishments."

"What happened tuh Uncle Woman?" Ruby asked in confusion. Cinder quickly shot her a nervous smile while hastily ripping up the question to shreds.

"O-Oh, uh n-nothing sweetie! He definitely didn't burn his...favorite area...for a straight five minutes or anything!" She didn't want Ruby to worry. As much as she hated anyone Ruby was close to who would mess up as greatly as Roman did, specifically Roman for now, Ruby still loved them like family, and Cinder never wanted her to worry about something like this.

"...What's his favorite area?"

"I'll tell you when you're older..." She muttered with a pink blush, quickly moving onto the next question.

"Now for our third question, Question 3-..." Cinder paused as she read the question, to Ruby's confusion.

"Somet'ing wrong?" Ruby wondered. With a smiling shake of her head, Cinder simply crumbled the paper before tossing it aside.

"I think it's best to wait on that question, which leaves us with their final question," Cinder stated, checking over the final paper," Question 4: with Ruby's puppy pout is that a face you and Neo can't say no to?"

"...Pffft-! Hahahaha-!" Cinder couldn't help but burst into chuckles at the question. "Her "Puppy Pout"...that's a great name for it..." Cinder couldn't help but chuckle for a few more seconds before sighing. "Ah, but no. It doesn't have any control over me or her. I mean, sure, she's an angel. My adorable, little, angel. But if I fell for that face every time she did it, I'd be spoiling her through life. I mean you can't just expect me to let her do what she wants every-"

"Mommy, can I have a cookie?" Ruby suddenly interrupted.

"Oh, n-not now sweetie. It's close to supper time." Cinder replied, ready to continue before the next interruption.

"But I'm weally hungwy!"

"Sweetie, mommy's a little busy right n-"

"Mmmmmmmhhhh..." The sound of a high-pitched whine growing sharper could be heard as Cinder stared.

"Sweetie, come on, you can have a cookie for desert after ok?"

"Mmmhhhhhh..."

"C'mon now sweetie, you know that's not going to-"

*BZZZZZZZZZZZZT*

The following scene cut to a single solitary image of what appeared to be a simple drawing. The drawing showed a rough crayon-drawn picture of what appeared to be Ruby dressed up in her baby sleeper, innocently sucking her thumb as three different Z's could be seen floating above her, the words 'We're Experiencing Technical Issues', written at the top in red.

From the mere looks of it, it can be assumed Neo drew this simple picture.

After another ten seconds had passed, the scene shifted once more to Cinder, the latter of whom seemed to be holding their head down slightly with a large blush and a pained expression on her face, vein twitching as she squeezed her eyelids closed.

"So as I was saying..." Cinder struggled to maintain a calm composure as a crunching sound could be heard in the background.

*munch*

*munch*

"That face of her's has absolutely..."

*munch*

*munch*

"-no effect..."

*munch*

"on me-" Her vein twitched irritably as a single large crumb could be seen flying off from the side and tapping her on the side of her left cheek, followed by a gulping sound. "NEXT QUES-MMMmhhh..." Cinder took an audible grumble to herself as she heavily breathed in through her nose before exhaling slowly for a few seconds, trying to relax. "On second thought, I think this is a good stopping point..." The sound of another whine could be heard after another gulping.

"Aww, do we hafta?" Ruby whimpered. With enough composure that would've made anyone else who knew Cinder previously think she was possessed, Cinder smiled off to the side once more.

"Yes sweetie, it's time to get supper ready. And then it's off to bed." She deemed as she rose from her chair, walking away from chair.

"Awwww...Can I at weast say goodbye?" Ruby asked hopefully.

"Of course, sweetie."

"Yaaa!" From atop the camera's view, Ruby's head could be seen looking into the camera, her head being upside down. It was obvious from anybody's perspective that she was being held by Cinder from this angle, the crumbs on her cheerful face falling which strengthened the fact she was upside down.

"Ni-ni evewyone!" Ruby cheered before being pulled away from view, the sound of footsteps walking further and further away until nothing but silence filled the room, at least until another sound of footsteps echoed through the room, this one coming closer and closer to the camera.

After several seconds, the view was filled with the image of a young Neo's face looking down at the camera the same way Ruby did, granted on her own since she was tall enough to. And much like Ruby, her smiling wink was added with the sight of dozens of crumbs around her mouth, giving a simple peace sign with the V she made with her left hand, and a half-eaten cookie in the other.

And with a happy wave, the camera cut to black as the show finally ended.

...

...

...

 **A/N: Hooftah! Another fun little mini-fic down the drain ^^! I know it's not much, but I hope this made up a little bit for the delay inbetween. And honestly, I had fun with this, so many we can expect the next chapter sooner too :P?**

 **Anyway, if you enjoyed leave a like a fave, and a review! And if you have any questions for Ruby's next Q'n'A Panel, be sure to ask them to the appropriate person AFTER leaving your thoughts in your review ^^. The next Q'n'A answeree will star "Uncle Roman" Himself, so if you have any questions for him, be sure to ask him specifically.**

 **Till then, leave a like fave and review to tell me what ya think, and have a good night for now ^^!**


	10. IMPORTANT TO DANGANRONPA AND RWBY FANS

_**A/N: Important notice to all Rwby and Danganronpa followers!**_

 _ **I got good news and bad news, depending on who's on what side.**_

 _ **If you're on the Danganronpa side, bad news: I'm putting the danganrronpa fic on hiatus for awhile since I've done quite a bit of work on it as is, at least until it reaches more reviews along the lines.**_

 _ **Good News for Rwby followers though: I will be working on the rwby fic for the duration of this grand and awesome volume 5 ^^ I figured it'd be a good idea to catch up to it with my own fic ^^.**_

 _ **Because of that, there will be some things to note.**_

 _ **1- as expected, the first near-dozen next chapters will be a bit shorter compared to my usual works, these will mostly be prequel bits. But on the plus side, that means faster if not daily updates since pushing out a good 3-6k of words is relatively easy :P**_

 _ **2- However, as time goes on, and like the actual series, as the episodes get longer, I'll be making the series longer in turn :P.**_

 _ **So yes people: this is going to be a re-imagining/AU of Rwby in my "mama cinder" universe. So at a certain point, yes, this fanfic will take place during the same time as rwby, or in other words, it'll be like "gender bender edition" in that it'll start taking place in the main series too.**_

 _ **Sorry if that's confusing, im not the best with descriptions, strangely only in author notes, otherwise I'm good... idky, it just is XP.**_

 _ **So with that said, hope you all enjoy the continuation of this series as much as I do ^^ I will also like to state, some points may seem like copouts or copies of the actual series atm (like something i got planned for the end of season 4), but trust me in that everything atm is 100% something I came up with originally, or to be more accurate, wasn't a matter of me just copying what they did or anything. If anything, it's mere coincidence.**_

 _ **And if you have problems, i refer you to my complaint department who happens to be an enraged Mama Cinder ^^.**_

 _ **So as said, hope you enjoy future updates ^^!**_


	11. Ruby's Day Out Part 2

**_A/N: Hello Everyone. How are you all O_o I am doing this purely out of my own free will, and promise each of you I am not currently being held hostage by a crazed psycho pushing a gun against my forehead-_**

 ** _*WHACK*_**

 ** _OW! I SAID I WASN'T!... Anyway, all honesty, I have actually wanted to get back to this for who knows how long :P Aside from Rwby being somewhat more popular in terms of media and feedback in the world (not to say I like danganronpa any less, if anything i like it a little more just due to it's originality if nothing else :/), I've gotten a lot more fans out of this fanfic for it's few measly chapters it has compared to my first Danganronpa fic, which is saying a lot :P... then again I think I have a better description for this fic than that one, idk...if anyone can make a better description for that fic I welcome it :/_**

 ** _Also, annoyingly enough, I want to go back to danganronpa again XP 2 reasons: 1, someone posted several replies, making up to at least 3 reviews for that fic, which I said would get me to post again, so I gotta kinda keep my promise. 2, idky but I just wanna work on that some more, I was having a lot of fun with it XP. Then again, I guess I'll be feeling like doing this one again the minute I go back to that one so who can say XP?_**

 ** _Till then, let's continue with the adorable shenanigans ^^! And I hope this extra long chapter makes up for the wait!_**

...

...

...

"Ooh...Ahh... P'etty..."

"Ugh..."

These were the few words that the pair as they traversed the city. For one of them, it was nothing short of enjoyable fun and wonder as they experienced each and every new thing they never saw before! There were lots of people, all different shapes and sizes, many buildings, some of which touched the sky from their perspective, they had numerous carts here and there selling food, there were kids along the sidewalks too, and there was this one building with puppies at the front of it! Could you imagine!? Free Puppies!

Or at least by the mere looks of it.

This was how the little 3 1/2 year-old Ruby saw things anyway. And this was a new experience for her! After being horrendously kidnapped by the evil girl right she made it her sole duty to find mommy once again, exploring every sign and street they came across until they found her family! And she wasn't going to let anyone come in the way of that! Of course, that required her to team up with the evil kidnapping girl right next to her, but if there's one thing she learned from all those stories mommy read to her every night, it's that she can turn even the most evil of people into best friends!

It was going to be hard work, she knew that much, but she was confident as long as she kept at it, she would be her best friend in no time! At least she would if she could focus on converting her from her evil kidnapping ways to a hero. Unfortunately, the lack of focus due to all the interesting surroundings she was witnessing made that impossible to keep in mind. It was a work in progress at best right now.

It wasn't really her fault that she couldn't pay attention either. The poor girl never got to witness the outside world save for whatever she saw from any of the windows of the warehouse or whatever building they were in. Even at times when she did see anything from the outside world from the windows, all she was greeted with were more factories or warehouses like the one she was currently in. "Shockingly", it wasn't as exciting for the toddler anymore after seeing the same thing for the 50th time in her life.

When it came to transportation, she was made to sit in the back of the trucks each and every time, mostly to prevent anyone from seeing her at the front. It would be rather strange and suspicious if a girl as young as Ruby was seen dozens of times in a cargo truck transported by people in a mask. Not to mention if they ever did get pulled over and asked questions, there was a very likely chance Ruby would've blurted out something along the lines of what they were doing, unintentionally of course.

Thankfully, it was never boring for Ruby all the same. Her mom or Neo would always be there at her side in the back until they reached their destination. After all, with several of the large pieces of cargo always containing either a handful of dust, dangerous items, or simple Lien, anything a toddler could get her hands on, they had to make sure she'd stay safe and away from anything that important. And besides, it wasn't like they wouldn't have done so, anyway. They still loved her all the same and wouldn't dare leave her by herself for what could usually result in an hour or longer drive.

The point is, Ruby barely got to see the outside world.

As such, the outside world had so many interesting things to witness for the first time, not just her mother, sister, "Uncle Roman", people behind masks, or the dozens upon dozens of identical videos outside the warehouses. So with each and every thing they came across, Ruby couldn't help but spend at least five minutes each time observing and looking at it.

That was Weiss' torture.

For the older, mature, and far more sensible girl of the two, which was probably more insulting considering she was comparing herself to a 3-year-old, this girl before her was an absolute nightmare.

Literally every two minutes they spent walking, another five to ten minutes was spent looking at something she couldn't pry Ruby from, and not for a sake of trying either. The problem is the minute she tried to, Ruby would start tearing up and whining. While normally seeing a whining toddler around the streets wasn't entirely unheard of, she needed to draw as little attention to the two of them as much as possible. She was a girl who was trying to run away from home for her own personal reasons, and because of that, she couldn't afford to draw attention from anyone she walked passed. It was suspicious enough to see two little girls walking around town on their own, but she definitely knew if Ruby started crying she would draw attention.

Attention leads to suspicion. Suspicion leads to questioning. And questioning will eventually lead to wondering why two little girls would be wandering the streets alone which would eventually lead to bringing them to the police where a simple phone call to papa would tell him where she was, and a private jet plane ride back home would be the end of her little runaway.

So keeping the attention they drew to a minimum was a necessity.

The problem was that was easier said than done.

The majority of Weiss' day consisted of hearing the following from little Ruby:

"Ooooh, wha'th that?"

"I gots to go potty again!"

"I'm hungwy..."

"I'm thirthty..."

"I wanna go thee the puppies!"

"I want my mommy!"

"You th'ouldn't be an evil kidnappew!"

The closer it got to the bottom of the list, the more annoying it became. For the last six hours, her afternoon consisted of nothing but this or the entire day. It was too late to say she deeply regretted ever going to the warehouse Ruby was in unless doing so would reverse the effects of time for her. And the attention Ruby drew simply by running up to said curiosities of interest were hard enough to pass off as normal, but adding how she had to explain several things to her like why the puppies aren't free and such took forever.

When it came to taking care of her needs such as hunger or such, vending machines or food stands were easy to come across. Luckily, being as young and noble as Weiss was, she was already gifted with a large sum of currency via her credit card her father taught her how to use. Most people would question why such a young girl had a credit card in the first place, but the instant they saw that Schnee Emblem plastered on the surface of the card, they knew better than to question such a high and respectable family.

As for bathroom trips, which were almost every two hours at this point, they managed to rush into whatever building was nearby.

And naturally, every second they waited in one place only increased their chances of being spotted or questioned by an adult, which would lead to an unfortunate event for her.

If there was any bright side to things, the places Ruby ended up dragging to her, figuratively or otherwise, were always crowded with both adults and kids. It was very fortunate it was the weekend at the moment or else even that would've been suspicious as to why these kids were here. But regardless, thanks to the fact they were always crowded, it was easier to pass off the idea that they were kids to any of the nearby adults. Even if it wasn't, there was no way anyone would normally believe two little kids as young as them would be wandering around the city by themselves.

The minute they did Weiss knew they'd be in trouble.

Such events bring us to the present. With the time nearing five o'clock, both girls were still lost within the city. They couldn't ask anyone for directions due to the low profile Weiss was trying to keep, and thanks to Ruby spooking her earlier by surprising her, she didn't even have her scroll now to look up the directions herself thanks to dropping it. Because of this, the two girls were forced to explore the city together in the hopes of finding a police station. Weiss herself had no intention of going into it, but she did plan on bringing Ruby to it in the hopes of finding her family, which the toddler happily agreed to.

But for the time being, they needed to rest. Whether they grabbed something to eat a minute after or after finishing their needs for the bathroom, they had been walking all day. They had no idea which direction they were going through all of this and half the time they ended up going in circles. Luckily Weiss was educated enough to recognize landmarks here and there, so every now and then she knew where she was and where to go for a new route.

By now they had to at least have covered half the city, being a fourth in actuality, so they figured they deserved a well-earned rest at a nearby park. While the park was nothing to gawk over, it was still another pleasant sight for Ruby to witness. The swings, the large slides, the sandboxes, everything about it looked fun! There were already dozens of children playing around the fun equipment while their parents watched.

Yet Weiss was insistent on the two of them sitting at the nearby bench to rest, leaving Ruby to just watch the playground while sipping on a small pop Weiss had gotten her.

"Phew, what a day..." Weiss commented to herself, wiping her forehead with a clean white handkerchief.

"Can we go thee the puppies again?" Ruby lisped before sipping on more of her drink through the straw.

As always, Weiss just sighed rubbing her head. "For the 87th time, later." She replied for who knew what time. She only knew this was the 87th time Ruby asked after the first hundred or so times within the last 2 hours. Normally the correct response would be to either yell or scold a child for being so needy or whining, not that it was a bad means of disciplining since it taught children patience or manners. But like all her other problems she had to keep everything under control to keep Ruby from making a scene, forcing her to lie repeatedly and saying they would see the puppies later.

"Some'ting wong?" Ruby asked curiously tilting her head.

"Yes!" Weiss nearly yelped. "I was supposed to be working right now at some business or school, or anything by this point. I wasn't supposed to be escorting or babysitting some kid who can't even read right."

"Well you th'ould've thought about dat befowe you kidnapped me." Ruby said proudly sipping her soda to the last.

Strangle her. That's what the inner voice in Weiss' head told her to do as she twitched her brow. It was taking all of her willpower though to refrain from doing it. "For the last time, I...ugggghhh..." Deep breaths and rubbing her eyes were the only thing preventing her from snapping. "Forget it, you wouldn't understand." Now Ruby was the one looking at her strangely.

For a kidnapper, she knew Weiss was being pretty nice. On top of that, she wasn't ugly or mean looking like all those bad people she was read to from her storybooks. And she went on from time and again about how much she wanted to find some strange thing called a Job. While she didn't understand what one was or why people had one, she knew it was one of the only reasons her mother was taken away from her for several hours at a time each day.

Speaking of which, that was one thing she forgot to ask about. "Say, where'th your mommy and daddy?"

That was the first question that caught Weiss by surprise. Not so much at how common that question was, just the fact this girl was the one to finally ask it. "My parents? Well..." Weiss scratched her chin with a slight frown. "I don't really know or care."

"Are you wost?" Ruby wondered. "You could wive wiff me and my mommy till we find them!" Ruby squealed with excitement.

There was nothing but utter horror that filled Weiss' mind at that moment. Ruby herself was already a handful to deal with, even if she truly never did see the outside world like she said earlier. Not only that, but the idea of meeting any family related to the little monstrosity before her terrified her more. What kind of people would they be if they were related to Ruby at all?!

"Er...T-Thanks for the offer, but I'm good." Weiss insisted with a nervous smile. "Besides, I ran away from home anyway."

"You wan away?" The toddler couldn't help but blink in confusion. "But why? Don't you wove your mommy and daddy?"

"Well of course I love them," Weiss assured, "it's just that... my life's boring."

"Bowing?" Come to think of it, Ruby never once asked anything about Weiss' own life. "What do you do everyday?"

"Oh, I suppose the usual anyone with my family status would do." To be honest, Weiss wasn't even sure if anyone else had a similar life to hers. She went to fancy schools and met self-proclaimed famous tutors with other kids from time to time, but aside from that she didn't know if they did everything like her either, much less if they were as noble or rich as her family. "You know, horseback riding, learning the art of music, fencing lessons from time to time, poetry-"

"Wow, you get ta do all dat stuff?!" Ruby's eyes widened with excitement. Was this girl a princess like all her story books? If that was the case then... wait a minute.

Ruby's inner mind suddenly gasped in horror. If she was a princess, did that mean she was an evil princess?! She was kidnapping the sweet and innocent Ruby herself, so that instantly meant she was an evil wicked witch lady! Oh the horrors she would possibly inflict upon Ruby, just thinking about it made the toddler tremble. Perhaps she would take away all her cookies, or hide away all her toys! Or worse, much much worse...

She would cancel all of Ruby's Birthdays! THE HORROR!

"It's not as fun as it sounds, though." Weiss continued, snapping Ruby out of her state of mind. "Every day of my life, from when the week starts to when the week ends, I need to be classy, certified, studying, polite, and so much more. I never get time to play around or just relax, not even with my siblings. It's always work, study, work, study, and sometimes work AND study. I just want to have fun and relax once in awhile. I even have to fly in a jet to some of my lessons, and study while flying in those things. I just want a break!"

"...Huh... you'we wucky." Ruby commented shaking her plastic cup. Weiss was a little bit surprised by this blunt statement, coming from Ruby of all people.

"How is that lucky?" It was probably pointless to ask that someone like Ruby. Knowing her she still didn't understand half the stuff troubling her, so listening to anything she had to say would most likely be pointless.

"Cause your mommy and daddy wove you a whole wots." Ruby replied looking at the sky. "They take you horsie widing, you get to meet wots of people, and get to fly in those pwane thingies." She never once got to see those things up close, but every now and then Ruby would see airplanes flying high over the sky from the windows, never understanding what said things were until her mom explained it.

"I only get ta see my mommy for awhile in the mowning befowe she has ta go do some'ting," Ruby continued, "sometimes till Ni-Ni time or suppew time. You at weast get ta see dem all evewyday and do wots of things togethew."

That was... actually a surprising amount of detail and care coming from Ruby, and to be honest Weiss couldn't help but admit she had a small point to it. It still didn't make anything worth it, given the lack of fun or relaxation she received in these constant studies or lessons, but she wasn't too far off about that remark regarding her parents. Even Weiss herself never bothered to think about something like that. Here she was, thinking to herself how she was suffering constantly each and every day, yet not once did she think about how much effort her parents took in to raising her properly. They must've spent hundreds of thousands of Lien each day for her constant tutors alone, she didn't even want to think about how expensive it got to send Weiss herself on a private Jet to her lessons.

Especially since they were paying for trips back and forth from her home.

Still, it didn't make things right from her own perspective, and she still couldn't think of finding relaxation in any of the things she did.

"Yeah, well... It's still not fun or anything." Weiss mumbled. "If it was just the occasional thing every now and then then of course it would be, but I have to do these things repeatedly each and every day, each and every month. It gets so annoying!"

"Why ith it annoyin'?" Ruby asked. To be honest it all sounded fun to her regardless of how repetitive Weiss made it sound.

"Because it's... It just is!" Weiss nearly yelled again. "Weiss, continue on with your next lesson, Weiss do your homework three times to make sure you understand it, Weiss tidy yourself up so you look presentable, it never ends!" She moaned to herself as she slouched.

"Awwwnnnn..." The squeaky yawn Weiss heard emanate from the toddler caught her attention. By now Ruby was rubbing her eyes sleepily as her eyelids drooped partway.

Looking back at the sky again, it was a bit more orange than before with the sun setting deeper. They must've been waiting around for nearly an hour by tho point, just talking about their views on Weiss' life and losing track of time in the process. If she had to guess, it must've been around six by this point which could only mean more trouble for the duo. She herself was starting to get a bit heavy-eyed as she stifled a yawn caused by watching Ruby. If she got sleepy herself then they would have a much harder time trying to navigate through the city. They needed to find somewhere to stay for the night.

"C'mon you," Weiss said helping Ruby from the bench as she held her hand, "let's go find somewhere to spend the night."

"But what about findin' my mommy?" Ruby sleepily asked as Weiss lead her through the sidewalk.

"We'll find her first thing in the morning, don't worry." Weiss said with a small smile. "For now though we need to find somewhere to sleep, it's gonna be cold out at night and we can't afford to get sick, ok?"

"O'tay..." Ruby's mumble was followed by another yawn.

It had been a taxing day on the two young children who explored the city. To be honest Weiss didn't find Ruby that annoying as she used to, though she still would've preferred never meeting her in the first place. By now she probably could've been working at a building of her choosing, or at least finding somewhere to apply for a job. It might've been unheard of for any six-year-old to go out and about the city with a job under her belt, but considering she had a near fourth-grade level education despite her age, she was confident she could handle things.

At least from her perspective. At the same time she couldn't help but consider everything Ruby said. Despite her own feelings there was some truth to her words, at least to a level Weiss herself could agree with. It was still that underlining, nagging, feeling though that kept her from agreeing with the young three-year-old. She wanted her own space, she wanted to enjoy life as any other ordinary kid even if it meant living a much more simpler and casual life.

Honestly... she was a little envious of Ruby despite everything she knew about her. She at least enjoyed her life despite everything Ruby didn't have, whether or not the toddler knew it herself. And at the same time she had something of a sheltered life where she was almost never allowed to go outside, so everything was new and wonderful for her to experience. Given Weiss' life, there was barely anything that caught her interest these days, having ridden horses, experienced professional art galleries in person, and so forth. Ruby had none of those things so she had something to enjoy each and every day as opposed to someone like her who was rushed through it.

Yet even then, after what Ruby said, she couldn't help but question herself if she had something to enjoy in life either, like the expenses her family was paying for all these wonderful things to do. It was something to at least think about and consider for the young Schnee girl.

...

...

 _*Ding*_

"Hm?" The clerk at the front of the small Inn looked to the door as she heard the entrance bell go off. To her curiosity, she wasn't greeted with the sight of an adult or some family, but two little girls holding hands while walking through the entrance. The older of the two girls had a simple backpack around her while the younger one was just struggling to stay awake. A normal sight for sure, but not without any parents to accompany them to the desk.

"Excuse me." Weiss spoke up from the front counter. The brunette ponytailed clerk had to look over the desk to see her, being a foot or two shorter than it.

"Um... can I help you?" She wasn't sure if she actually could or if the young girls were just going to ask her some questions.

"Yes, I'd like to register a room for the night for two, please." Weiss requested respectfully with a curtsy.

"Do you hafta go to duh bathwoom again?" Ruby lisped, still not understanding the sight of a curtsy.

"Shhh!" Weiss quickly shushed.

"Um... Ok, but I need to wait for your parents to show up first." The clerk explained. "They need to sign you in, sorry."

"Oh, they'll be here in a short while," Weiss replied, "but they wanted me to sign in first with my little sister."

"Huh!?" Ruby's eyes widened in shock. Since when did she become her sister? Or was this like Blake when she became Ruby's new sister? "But I'm not your wittle thithter-"

"Hahaha, isn't it adorable?" Weiss chuckled nervously while covering Ruby's mouth. "Despite her age, she still insists she isn't a little girl. Isn't that sweet?" It was nothing short of awkward to feign innocence while proclaiming the small kid next to her was at all related. To the most elite of society, people would easily be able to tell from first glance they weren't at all related due to their hair color, eye colors, and several other genetics only an elitist would notice.

Thankfully, to the common variety of people like this clerk, they weren't as stingy on appearance or possibilities like relationships. "Yes, that's very cute," the clerk paused briefly to yawn, given the lateness of the day, "but I really need your parents to be the ones to check your family in, it's company policy."

"Huff, well that's a shame," Weiss sighed as she pulled out a card from her backpack, "because my family heard this was supposed to be one of the best inns around town, but I guess we'll have to tell everyone we were wrong about it..." She commented showing the clerk her card.

Before the clerk was about to respond, her eyes widened with surprise like everyone else she showed the card to. The card itself was plastered with an emblem of the Schnee family insignia, claiming proof of her relationships to the family whether directly or otherwise. You couldn't even forge these kinds of insignias given the gold, crescent plating that skimmed along the edges of the symbol, the delicate craft of it only capable of being made by an experienced artist. Even if someone was capable of forging such an insignia, doing so with the gold plating or style would've been near impossible without the resources.

On top of all of this it was the fact they were, at least Weiss was, Schnee at all that would've presented a problem for the clerk. They couldn't turn down anyone as prestigious as a Schnee family member, whether or not they were too young to do something in the first place. It wasn't like she could just go to a bar and order alcohol at her age with the card, don't get the wrong idea. But if word got out that any sort of business, restaurant, or place of interest not only turned down a family member was reviewed poorly by said member, their business would plummet. People would stop requesting their assistance, they wouldn't get any more work or credit, they would be shutdown in a matter of months!

And that's if they were lucky to last that long.

On the other hand, this did present an opportunity to the clerk. If she went along with everything Weiss said and offered then their business would surely skyrocket. The last place to be reviewed or credited by a Schnee family member saw themselves becoming a four-star restaurant within a matter of weeks. Business boomed off the charts, people were overflowing the building from opening to closing, and the currency they obtained from it made every single worker there wealthier beyond their wildest dreams! At the very least, even if the clerk wasn't as interested in the currency she still couldn't afford to let Weiss or anyone from her family say anything bad about them.

"O-Oh, my apologies!" The clerk said walking around the counter. "I had no idea who you or your sister were."

"All is forgiven," Weiss smiled with another curtsy, "but my parents would really enjoy it if I checked in for them. They said they had some business to run for the next few hours and wanted my sister and I to get to bed early."

"I-I understand, sweetie," The Clerk stuttered slightly, "b-but to think your parents would send you ahead this late at night..." Technically it wasn't that late in the night, being only around 8 o'clock at the time, but for two children as young as them it was well-near their bedtime.

"I get what you're what you're thinking, but you have to understand, my little sister gets very cranky when she doesn't get to bed on time." Weiss insisted much to Ruby's confusion.

"What? No I- ech! Her eyes suddenly snapped as Weiss began pinching her painfully behind the back. It wasn't enough to hurt most girl, just enough to make a young three-year-old cry. "Eggghhhhhhh!" She began to whine tearing up.

"O-Oh! Don't worry sweetie," the Clerk assured as she lead the two down the halls, "we have the perfect room for you and your sister."

"What about the papers?" Weiss asked, knowing they were supposed to be signing herself in before turning in for the night.

"Oh, don't worry sweetheart, I'll sign in for you and your parents right away, so you and your sister can get to sleep right away." The Clerk replied with a nodding smile. Opening the door before them, Ruby was nothing short of surprised by the amazing room before them.

Well, maybe not amazing to the average person, but to Ruby it was like a four-star hotel in a typical Hotel Inn. There were two large and luxurious beds for the two girls with silk red sheets and matching red carpets. The drapes of the room were lined with a simple line pattern of gold and white with a traditional oak drawer and a large 40' TV on it. There was an adjoining bathroom with a rather fancy massage-like bathtub and golden faucets, and a beautifully decorated mirror with several bathroom amenities hidden inside.

It was definitely one of the more fancier rooms of the inn despite Weiss' assurance that they had higher quality rooms than this. As far as she was concerned they must've been occupied for the moment or, to Weiss' slight worry, there may have still been doubt in the Clerk's mind. She was lucky enough that she bought her story up to this point so she had no intentions of pushing what was already given to her.

Besides, all fairness it was an actual cozy-looking bedroom. It definitely didn't compare to her own personal bedroom, but it was alright in it's own way. The bed themselves at least looked similar to her own, and the tapestry was very well done for such a common-looking place.

"Oooh..." Ruby awed at the sight of the amazing beds as she ran up to them, scrambling her hands across the sheets as she pulled herself atop the left one.

"So, are these rooms to your liking?" The Clerk asked looking back to Weiss.

"Weeeeee!" Both Weiss' and the Clerk's attention were caught by the sound of Ruby's giggling. It was a natural scene that played out before them, watching the small three year old jumping happily on the bouncy bed. Even Weiss couldn't help but smirk at the scene.

"Heh, I think it'll work just fine." Weiss replied with a nod.

"In that case, I shall be at the front desk. Feel free to call if you two need anything." The Clerk nodded respectfully as she quietly closed the door behind her.

With a sigh, Weiss pulled herself up to the other bed before collapsing on her back. The bed was indefinitely comfortable, but then again anything would be comfy after walking around for nearly 8 straight hours in one day. And to be honest, this was more walking than even she had done in the last three days. At least before she could relax every now and then, but thanks to Ruby's sudden appearance her goal was to find some police station to leave her at. Every second the two were together the bigger chance Ruby had of making a scene and getting herself caught in the process.

"Doggie pile!" Ruby squealed as she jumped over to Weiss' bed, landing right on top of her.

"Ack-!" Weiss nearly yelped from fright as she shot her eyes open once more. She could only stare in annoyance as Ruby rolled onto her back again still chuckling. "What happened to being tired?"

"I woke up aftew you pin'shed me." Ruby explained. To be perfectly fair, Weiss couldn't blame Ruby entirely on that part.

"Ok, I admit that was my fault," Weiss apologized scratching the back of her head, "but I just needed you to play along." With another brief yawn, Weiss dimmed the nearby lamp as she slid herself under the covers. The lamps were specialized so the brightness could be adjusted by hand, all the way from maximum brightness to completely off. She left just enough light in case she needed to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.

Looking at her curiously, Ruby crawled over to Weiss' side under the bed, scootching herself closer to Weiss until she was right next to her. Despite finding this predictable for someone her age, the White-haired girl just groaned to herself as she held in any irritated banter she could present the toddler with. She probably wouldn't have understood it anyway, but the less talking they did from that point onward the sooner they could get to sleep.

"Are you ready for bed now?" The Schnee asked with half-closed eyes looking to her side.

"Awwwhhnn..." Ruby let out another cute yawn as she rubbed her sleepy eyes. "Yups!"

"Good, then goodnight." Weiss said as she closed her eyes to sleep.

"..."

 _*shake*_

 _*shake*_

Weiss sighed mentally to herself as she looked back to Ruby who was still holding onto her side. "What?"

"Are we gonna find my mommy tomowwow?" Ruby asked with a slight frown.

"Huff, yes Ruby, we'll find a Police Station first thing in the morning, and they can bring you to your mommy right away, ok?" She assured.

"O'tay..."

"Ok, then goodnight."

"..."

 _*shake*_

 _*shake*_

"Ugh, what?"

"Do you wanna find your mommy and daddy too?"

"No." She gruffed as she turned away to sleep. Ruby frowned some more as she sat up from her spot.

"But why? Don't you wove dem?" Ruby couldn't comprehend this. Kids were supposed to love their parents a lot! So why wouldn't Weiss want to go see her parents again?

"Ngh, of course I do, I just-"

"Then why would you wun away?" The toddler quickly interrupted.

"I just wanted some space to myself-

"So you didn't care if they mi'thed you or not?"

"I know they'll miss me, that's not the point-"

"Then what ith the point? You'we just wunning for no weason and you don't even care if they-"

"BECAUSE I WASN'T HAVING FUN!" Weiss suddenly snapped, sitting up as she glared at the irritating girl.

"Mhhhhhhhhh..."

As expected, she was only met with watery eyes as Ruby began sniffling to herself. She hated everything about this day, although anything pertaining to Ruby she couldn't entirely blame her for. All honesty, she was too young to understand. She was too young to even be traveling a city like this with someone as young as Weiss herself despite her expertise. In fact she probably shouldn't have even been in this situation, it was only because of Weiss' decision to drop by the warehouse this morning that she ended up stuck with her in the first place.

So here she was stuck with a now crying toddler and a room just for the two of them. On the plus side of things, now that they were inside of a building, the worst that could result in Ruby's crying was the Clerk just checking in to see what's wrong with them. But even then Weiss couldn't help but feel a tiny bit guilty for yelling at the 3-year-old. She was just a toddler, nothing more. And no amount of explaining would make her understand.

...Or was there really anything to understand? Weiss began questioning to herself the reasoning behind everything she's done up till now, including running away from her family after another private jet ride to her next tutor. Was there really any good reason for her to just leave everything behind? She didn't find the things she was doing repeatedly fun, but maybe that was just her? Thinking from Ruby's perspective, she did suppose something like Riding Horses from time to time was enjoyable, and she didn't necessarily mind practicing fencing every now and then.

Regardless, with a deep breath to calm her anger, she gently leaned Ruby back down on the bed as she pulled the covers up to them once more.

"Look, Ruby, it's just-" She paused slightly as Ruby clung onto her in a small hug, sniffling into her chest. For once Weiss just smiled as she ignored it and the fact she was probably dribbling snot onto her dress again. "I have a lot of things going on in my life, ok? I want to have a normal life, I want my life to be plain and simple... kind of like yours, ok? I don't want every day of my life to be the same thing, I don't want to live a life where people are telling me what to do in each and every little thing. I want to be able to choose what I eat, I want to choose what I get to read or study, I just... I just don't know what to do..."

With one last sigh, she leaned herself back into bed as she continued. "So it's not like I'm mad at you or anything, I mean it. I'm sorry for yelling. I just... I guess I was just afraid of my life turning out to be nothing but this. Never getting to choose for myself, living like a puppet against my will... it's hard to explain. I guess I just wanted to have a life I could enjoy instead of one I was forced to enjoy. But I still love my mother and I still love my father, so don't ever think I don't, ok? I love them, I love my siblings, and my life wasn't all too terrible looking back at it. So... I guess I'm just confused, ok? I'm just confused and didn't know how to deal with that, so I ran away. Maybe I'll consider going back when I have things figured out, ok?...Ruby?"

"Snnnnnnnkkkkkkk hew..."

There was so much rage building up in Weiss' irritated brow at that moment, taking as many silent deep breaths as she could to keep herself from exploding. Here she was, pouring her heart out practically for the first time to anyone around her, and a complete stranger no less, and the first time she does so she's only met with someone snoring back at her while sucking her thumb. The first time ever, met with falling asleep in her wake. To add on to her own personal embarrassment, it was to a toddler no less of all people, someone who probably wouldn't even remember this conversation in a year from now.

If anyone else ever came across a scene of someone falling asleep before a Schnee, said Schnee would die of humiliation.

Still, she supposed this was for the best. She needed Ruby to fall asleep, so this partially worked in her favor. With a small smile to herself, she could at least slide back into the covers once again as the sleep caught up with her. And with another smile, she closed her eyes peacefully. To be honest, this was one of the more relaxing sleeps she's ever fell into in a long while.

Who knows, maybe Ruby was onto something after all.

...

...

"Ruuuuubyyyyy!" A worrisome Cinder yelled into the dark alleyway.

This was a nightmare.

She was convinced she was just walking through an endless nightmare she had yet to wake up from.

When the whole day started, she didn't think anything twice of it or how it was going to go. They were going to get up, start packing up for the move, wake up and dress Ruby, have a small breakfast, move to their new penthouse , and reveal to Ruby her new and better home. It was going to be great. Ruby would leave the view, granted the height might scare her for awhile, and she would enjoy seeing the entire city around her as opposed to those moldy old warehouses she was constantly living in.

And the day did start off with the same morning routine too. She got up, dressed herself and Ruby, then went straight to work. She was busy packing with Neo while they prepared the trip to their new home. And what was the one and greatest mistake she had yet to forgive herself for? Thinking ROMAN of all people could actually watch a 3-year-old for an hour until they finished packing!

What was the result? Apparently after finishing the packing an hour later, she goes to the aforementioned handyman and checks in on him and how the progress is going with the move. While doing so, she also gingerly asks how her favorite and adorable little daughter is doing. What was his answer to what was supposed to be a great day? He didn't know where Ruby was. He was supposed to watch her and keep an eye on her, and he didn't know where she was. To make things even better, he assigned her, a 3-year-old, to watch a door several yards away from where he was working. And now after looking back, they were greeted to see not only an open door, but a missing Ruby at the same time.

Boy was this fun.

Since then, Cinder has been on the chase. For the last 8 straight hours from noon to now, she had been looking for her little joy with great determination and perseverance. She couldn't stand the idea of Ruby handling herself out in this city, not knowing why Ruby would either have gone out into the city despite how often she told her not to, or what caused her to suddenly disappear from the spot. He might not have been her mother, but she usually listened closely to Roman whenever he said something, so him telling her to guard the door should've been what they found her doing.

Was she actually kidnapped? Did something actually happen to her?! These thoughts of worries were making Cinder panic like never before. Her heart's been racing since the minute Ruby was discovered missing, and hasn't slowed down since. The only time she managed to calm herself was when she explored an open area like the park, or anywhere else Ruby would've possibly found interesting. And it was Cinder's hope something caught her attention to explain her disappearance, otherwise she didn't want to even think of what horrific thing some kidnapper would possibly do to her if her fears were realized.

What made this issue the most troubling, however, was the lack of help Cinder had in all this. The police could absolutely not be involved for any reason whatsoever. There was no way they could explain anything to the police, meet the police in person, or even ask the police for assistance without the chance somebody knew them from one of their past heists. They always met with cops in the middle of a heist, something they always managed to avoid. It was almost a cruel irony now that something that could actually resolve their entire issue was the very thing they've been fighting against since these heists began, all of which were needed till they reached their large sum of Lien to pull off a Master Plan.

One only Cinder herself was currently aware of, as well as one that was still years away from being ready for.

In some respects, it was a bit of a relief Cinder had yet to find Ruby in an alleyway or ditch, something any mother would fear finding their child in. It did prove wherever she was she was still alive so that was the only positive outlook she saw at the time. But the farther into the day time went, the more worrying the situation became. It was nearing her bedtime as is, there was no way she would still be full of energy regardless of wherever she was. On top of that the poor thing could be starving! She had to find her soon before she inevitably starved to death, not realizing how well off Ruby had been up to this point.

 _*bzzzzzzzz*_

 _*bzzzzzzzz*_

 _*bzzzzzzzz*_

Cinder nearly jumped as her scroll began vibrating, wasting no time as she hastily opened it for some response. "Ruby!?"

"No, it's Mr. Cannon Fodder. And my crotch is fine by the way, thanks for asking..." Roman groaned irritated from the other end. The fiery witch was in no mood for jokes at the time, although she wasn't entirely surprised about Roman's grouchy behavior. Being someone who did something no one else had done before, he got to experience the newest of Cinder's fiery punishments after failing to keep an eye on Ruby and starting the sequence of events to this point.

He got to experience what it was like to have his nuts on fire for nearly five minutes.

"Did you find Ruby or not!?" Cinder grumbled as she continued walking down the sidewalks.

"Cripes, would you relax? No, we haven't seen her yet." Roman stated looking around the empty warehouse once more. The only other one by his side aside from some grunts who were unloading the cargo was Neo who had a worried frown like Cinder. Of course she cared deeply for Ruby, much like Cinder. But instead of being able to go out and help look around, she had to stay behind and assist with unloading the cargo trucks at the next warehouse. Even if she was given permission, she was too loyal to Roman to leave his side for as long as Cinder was. "We had the other warehouses checked to, but no one's reported seeing her yet."

"Ngh..." Cinder rubbed her eyes as he tried to think. She hasn't eaten, barely drank anything, or stopped for a single moment since Ruby went missing. From the long busy streets to any of the nearby parks, she had yet to see any sign of her little girl- that alone was driving her mad. "And you're sure you didn't see where she went? Or why she disappeared?"

"Do you think I would've lied just to get tender area burned?" Roman remarked with a roll of his eyes.

There was an uneasy atmosphere being created between the two speakers. Cinder couldn't even begin to think how long Ruby would be able to last in a city she's never experienced before, and Roman knew it was only a matter of time before Cinder became desperate.

What made the situation a bit uneasy for him was the unfortunate fact he could partly relate to her. Why was that? Because her relationship with Ruby was similar to that of Roman's with Neo. It was barely a year before Cinder took in Ruby when he came across the 10-year-old by chance. Ironically, he met her when she tried to pickpocket him after bumping into him. That wasn't what really drew him to her though; what really surprised him as how she actually got away with it! He didn't realize his wallet as missing till five minutes later, wasting another minute trying to think where his wallet went or why it disappeared in the first place. It was only a stroke of luck later when he came across the same six, maybe seven-year-old girl at the time, living in an alleyway, depressingly within several large stacks of boxes like a fort.

As opposed to either turning her in or stealing his wallet back, he enlisted her as one of his righthand men, or girl in this case. Over time the two did naturally grow closer together, even after Cinder returned from one of their heists one night with a new addition to their little "family". Looking back on it he began to wonder if she got the idea of taking her in from him, but that wasn't the point by now. For now, he only understood what she must be going through or why she was so intent on finding Ruby. If the situation was reversed, he'd be out there right now searching for Neo if she suddenly disappeared. Granted, he wouldn't go as crazy as to BURN SOMEONE'S NUTS... unless he was torturing someone if they were involved with kidnapping Neo or something, but still. He cared about Neo the same way Cinder cared for Ruby, so there was a degree of understanding between the two of them.

With a sigh to himself, patting Neo's head calmly, he spoke into the scroll once more. "Look, if you want to try the police station-"

"I know I can't do that, Roman..." Cinder muttered depressed.

"Yeah, well I know you too." He retorted slightly teasing. "If you plan on going there at all, you should go in the middle of the night. The change in shifts will make it less likely for anyone to notice you."

It was less likely, but not improbable. Most of their heists were usually done in the evening, almost never during the days themselves. While it wasn't late enough to simply break into stores that were empty, the busy streets and numerous people walking about made it easier to blend in and escape while the police were occupied with getting passed civilians either running from whatever heist was in progress, or the people pulling the heists themselves. Because of, most of the police or authorities they ever did encounter, if ever, were usually part of the morning shift, rarely the night shift unless someone was filling in for someone else for any reason.

Another detail crafted by Roman's careful thinking.

"Alright... Thank you..." She knows it must've been hard for Roman to assist in the idea asking the police for help, especially after what she did to him, but she still appreciated it all the same. It was a nice gesture at the very least.

"But don't go thinking I'll bail you out if you still get caught," Roman continued, "if you get caught, I can't risk getting you out of there or everything we've done to this point will crumble."

That was a matter Cinder wasn't surprised with. Since the beginning, Roman's been the one running nearly half the crime in this city, no matter how large or small the crimes were. Some of them were petty thefts, others were hostage situations. And while he was never directly involved in some of them, one way or another, he did have some hand in it's operations or schemes. Sometimes he provided assistance for currency, other times it was just a ploy for a much greater plot or simple distraction.

It was by luck he came across someone with magic like Cinder who wanted to enlist under his group of thieves as one of his partners, or equals as he would put it. But he was there when all of this began, even before Cinder's own intervention and involvement. So even if someone as skilled as her was caught or arrested, he wouldn't do something that would jeopardize everything he's done up to this point, all the money and time he's put into each of his schemes. Maybe only if it was Neo, but even then that put things on the edge of uncertainty.

Surprisingly Cinder just smiled at this slightly, knowing he still cared somewhat.

"I get it... thanks Roman." She replied before hanging up.

"Ugh..." Roman groaned to himself before looking over to Neo. The young twin-colored-haired girl was giving him a mixed look between worry and somewhat joy, despite the semi-frown she still had. With a small grin, he just patted her head once again calmly. "Eh relax kid, Red's gonna be fine." He nearly jumped as Neo hugged him tightly out of worry, burying her head into his stomach. He just continued to pat her head as he grinned at this, staring off into space at the same time. He might not have cared for Ruby as much as Cinder did, but he did care enough to know she would be fine. She was an adventurous little sport, and if Cinder didn't find her at this point then someone or something must've been looking out for her at this moment.

The only question was what?

...

...

"...Mhhh..." Weiss mumbled to herself as she woke up, slowly opening her eyes. It was almost midnight at the time, but she couldn't sleep. She didn't know why either, but something was keeping her from falling back asleep again. Maybe it was the small figure still clinging to her chest as she looked down at Ruby's slumbering head again, still snoring cutely as she sucked her thumb.

She had to admit, it as pretty cute watching her sleep, but it wasn't the thing that kept her mind distracted by it. Maybe it was the warm feeling on her chest that told her she was being too harsh on the young toddler. Maybe it was that moist sensation running through her mind telling her she should make it up to Ruby in the morning. Maybe it was that smell that was coming off of Ruby's peaceful presence. Maybe it was-

Wait a minute. Smell? Weiss blinked to herself as she looked around, turning on the lamp next to her to figure out what was going on. With the light brighter than before, the sight she was greeted with when looking back made her eyes go blank with disbelief, unsurprised, and more annoyance.

So, what was today's lesson Weiss learned just several minutes before the next day? Apparently, toddlers still wet the bed. When you give a toddler a nice soda to drink an hour before bed, they don't realize they need to use the bathroom when they begin to tire. On top of that, with the several bathroom breaks they needed to take throughout the course of the day, it shouldn't have surprised Weiss that Ruby did have a bedwetting problem since it was nearly three hours since they last went before bed.

The fact she didn't expect it was what annoyed Weiss after realizing how obvious it was, especially since she discovered Ruby still wore pull-ups. The part that surprised her was how much she wet the bed, seeing how the large wet spot must've covered at leaf a fourth of the bed.

Unfortunately, that fourth of course covered Weiss too seeing how now her clothes were ruined and were wet. It was taking all of Weiss' willpower to keep from shouting on the spot, disgusted beyond measure that she was currently covered in a little kid's pee from the chest down. Part of it was her own fault, but the other part of it was telling her it was all Ruby's fault for not telling her she wet the bed anyway. She needed to accept the fact she was partly to blame or she would risk going ballistic, possibly strangle Ruby a little, and shout to the top of her lungs.

Taking a deep breath once more, she slowly shook Ruby awake as she waited for the toddler's eyes to flutter open.

"Ruby..." She grumbled under her breath quietly.

"Mmhh...hm?" Ruby rubbed her half-opened eyes. "Wei'th?" She was confused by the fact the older girl woke her up so late in the night, never recalling any time she ever woke up like this.

"Do you have something to say?" She asked grinding her teeth slightly, pointing around them.

Blinking to herself, Ruby was surprised as ever by the large wet spot. Maybe she would've realized it if she wasn't asked a question on the spot several seconds after waking up, but for now she had no idea how the bed got so wet or why both she and Weiss were both wet and kinda smelly.

There was only one logical conclusion the toddler could find through all of this! The one realization that made the most sense to her!

"Oh my dogs, you wet da bed!"

Deep breaths Weiss... Deep Breaths...

...

...

...

A/N: Annnnnd I think that's a good breaking point guys ^^ I'll be honest, I'm sorta on a swing between continuing this or going back to the danganronpa fic. I was actually going to state how I planned on going back to the danganronpa fic after this chapter, but after all the feedback I've gotten and STILL getting up to this point, I've been kinda debating between the two. Who knows, maybe I'll stick with this for awhile, least during volume 5 ^^.

With that said, hope this extra long chapter was worth the wait to some of you ^^ Should note due to the weirdness I was feeling going back to this from danganronpa, some bits of grammars or wording might sound off, which I apologize. I wrote this several paragraphs at a time due to Halloween and everything going on over here (and speaking of which hope you all enjoyed yours ^^), so some ideas were sorta placed on the spot here and there as I tried to remember everything planned.

Either way once again hope this extra length chapter was too your liking. Should note next chapter prob won't be as long (who knows), but hope you enjoy that one and this one all the same ^^. Leave your feedback and lemme know how this was since it's been awhile, and hope to see many of you next chapter soon!


	12. Image Cover Notice

As of now, several dozens of you might've noticed the new picture I'm using as my cover. I made it 100% all me with no outside help or copy of someone else's image!...is what I want to say XP. Sadly, outside of just editing so the words aren't present, I didn't make this wonderful picture, yet I found it too perfect to pass up! It looked like the perfect image cover for this fanfic that I just had to X To whoever the creator is, I apologize for posting this without your permission (not that I'm doing it intentionally but I honestly have no freaking idea who drew this since the picture brings me from google images to some wattpad site that doesn't even SHOW the picture which makes things really confusing X/...) Point is, some wonderful artist owns this pic, and as such I'll be sure to take this down if the artist wishes for it.

Otherwise, if they're ok with it, then hope you all love the new cover I have for this fic ^^. Once again, it was made by someone else who appears to be a "Mama Cinder" fan too, so hopefully they like this fic just as much as the rest of you.

On the same note, if anyone wishes to do a picture for the cover of this fic, please notify me immediately. I'll love to see whatever you come up with, and will have you mentioned in the fic of course as the creator of the image ^^. With that said, sorry for wasting your time with this possibly pointless message, hope you liked the update posted an hour ago before this post.


	13. Ruby's Day Out Final

**_A/N: And now we reach the conclusion of our adorable little adventure! It's been fun guys, but like everything, it's time to move passed this. It's time to move on to the future, and the only way to do that is to go through the present! With that confusing bout of dialogue said, enjoy ^^!_**

...

...

...

 _*splash!*_

"Ack-! Ruby!" Weiss yelped as Ruby jumped about in the grand tub once more.

The day was indefinitely taking it's toll on Weiss' sanity from the very start of it to this very minute, which neared the last half-hour of its day. Since this morning, she's been watching this toddler who was certain this evil princess girl had "Kidnapped her" and had been forced to put up with her for the last near 12 hours of the day. Since she met her upon greeting her at the door, Ruby took it upon herself to follow the six-year-old, make request after request from hunger to potty breaks almost every other hour, and eventually find some place to turn in for the night as they searched the city for a police station.

Thankfully, Weiss was a Schnee. And if her title didn't hold any merit, then the credit card she was entrusted with that tied with her family's name, and more importantly their bank account, did. While she couldn't afford to find herself within the confines of an elite 4-star hotel like she was usually blessed with on these oversea trips, she was intrigued to find a rather comfy living area within this simple, everyday, hotel. It wasn't anything breathtaking, at least not to someone with her leisure, but for a commonplace it wasn't half bad either. It had very comfortable furniture and simple yet elegant texture among it's rugs and drapes. Perhaps Weiss would put in a good word for this place if she ever had the time, or care after what she woke up to.

Don't even get her started within the last five minutes.

Oh that restful period when she thought she would have peace and quiet. Normally when one goes to sleep, it's usually peaceful. At worst, you might experience a nightmare which you eventually wake up from in a matter of hours later, and eventually forget about it soon after.

This, though?

Oh, no no no, this would not be forgotten for quite some time. Why is that? Because apparently, Ruby is a bed wetter. Maybe Weiss should've expected it since the three and a half year old girl was still in pull-ups, but she was a bed wetter. And what do bed wetters do? They wet the bed. So for Weiss to wake up merely three hours after falling asleep, discover the large stain caused by one little toddler followed by the smell of it, and to realize both Ruby and herself were soaked with the little girl's pee, well... let's just say Weiss was having the most challenging day of her life as she continued to refrain from bursting out in rage and stress.

It probably didn't help that Ruby thought Weiss was the one who wet the bed to begin with.

So now here two little girls sat naked as they bathed in the relaxing running waters of the massage tub. Well, perhaps bathing to be more accurate in Weiss' terms. She was struggling enough trying to cope with her unfortunate wakeup call. After all, it wasn't every day someone could say they woke up covered in someone else's pee... actually no one should ever be able to say that. Especially when it comes to a girl as refined and taught to live with elegance like her, waking up in such a state was a memory she prayed she would eventually forget.

It would probably be easier if the young toddler was of any help, but as opposed to getting clean to she'd rather splash around the water like it was some sort game. It would normally be easy to scoff at anyone with this sort of behavior, but not so much when it was a toddler who was covered in bubbles like the two of them.

"C'mon Wei'th, let's play!" Ruby encouraged, kicking the water at the white-haired girl. She just watched as Weiss stared back at her for a few seconds before continuing to clean herself.

"Don't even talk to me right now," Weiss grumbled softly as she scrubbed her arms, "I'm still trying to get someone's smell off of me, thank you."

"Aww, don't feel embarwwassed Wei'th, I have da same probwem too." Ruby chirped, not understanding who Weiss was referring to.

"Yes, but there's a big difference between the two of us. One's three, the other's six."

"Thwee and a half!" Ruby pouted puffing her cheeks.

"That's debatable since you can't even count yet." Weiss reminded. Whatever lecture she was trying to get through Ruby's head apparently fell on deaf ears as the girl. "Besides, the wet bed sheets would also say otherwise."

"Dat's just kawma for kidnapping me." Ruby replied sticking out her tongue.

"One, for the last time, I didn't kidnap you." Weiss wasn't even sure why she bothered anymore, the toddler had yet to get it. "And two, I'm surprised someone like you even knows what Karma is at this point." She had to admit, it was one of the more interesting words Ruby had yet to say since meeting her.

"Mh hm, I wearned it from my Uncle Woman!" The toddler lisped proudly. For some reason Weiss began to blush at this as her eyes blanked.

"W-Wait...Are you... Are you saying you have an uncle who's a...woman?"

"Yup!" Reply nodded happily, not understanding what Weiss actually meant. "And a big sissy who looks like ice-cweam, and a mommy who pways with fiwe!"

"...This... actually explains a lot about you..." There was no way she could begin to even question anything Ruby just said. From her viewpoint, Ruby just stated how her sister was either some clown with a mental condition or a deadbeat ice cream salesman who lived with her parents, an uncle who had his gender changed, and don't even get her started with her mother. "Are you, by any chance, a pyromaniac like your mother?" Ruby blinked with total confusion.

"A pywo-whatiac?"

"A fire- never mind. Just... someone who likes to play with fire a lot." Weiss clarified.

"Oh...yup! She pways with fiwe all the time!" The toddler said with glee, clapping her hands. "She likes pwaying with it, thwoing it awound, and even did dis one twick where she tuwned a meanie's leg backwawds!"

"... Huh... " Compared to finding herself utterly horrified and disbelief with what he toddler just told her, another thought began running through Weiss' mind. "Is your mother a magician?"

"Bwess you!" Ruby quickly replied.

"Ugh, never mind." Even if Ruby didn't understand what she meant, it actually explained everything to Weiss about what she's been saying up to this point.

She came from a Circus Family. It was a bit humorous in the right mindset, and still explained other details about Ruby herself that Weiss could clearly see. For one, her mother must've been a magician. That would explain all the supposed "Tricks" Ruby was referring to.

Her sister? Maybe not as deadbeat as Weiss thought of after all, being nothing more than a humble ice cream lady who helps run the snacks and food stands of the circus. Heck, she might not even be an adult. She might just be a simple teenager helping their mom run the family business. If that was the case, Weiss could partly respect Ruby's sister for simply sticking to the family tradition and just trying to help out.

And for her uncle? ...Circus Freak? She wouldn't normally put someone in that regard, she could think of more appropriate titles to give someone that sounds like her uncle. But if they were all part of the circus, then maybe he really was a legitimate circus freak meant to be shown off for entertainment. Maybe he wasn't even really a woman, maybe he was just a cross dresser pretending to be a circus freak for the attractions.

Or maybe this was all just desperate thinking for a girl who was starting to get a little disturbed from hearing about Ruby's family? Probably the latter at this point.

*splash*

"Ah, would you cut that out!" Weiss grumbled. "I'm trying to wash my hair."

This just earned her a curious look from the toddler. "Why not have fun while doing it?"

"Have fun...?" She sounded as if she's never heard of the word before. To Ruby, she probably hasn't. "What fun is there to have in a bathtub? It's meant to be used to clean oneself, not play around like children."

"...But we are childwen..." Ruby tapped her chin in thought. It took all of her mature brain power, her cunning intellect, all the amazing smartness her brain to conjure up, but she thinks she finally cracked the code to life's greatest mystery! "I got it!" She giggled gathering up a bunch of bubbles, however scarce they were since Weiss didn't use any bubble bath soap to fill the tub, before dumping a large lump of it Weiss' head. "Tada!"

"H-Hey!" Like before the six-year-old simply grumbled to herself as she brushed off whatever suds she could. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"I wealized your probwem!" Ruby deduced triumphantly. "You're no fun!"

"...Gee, what a shock." This response actually surprised Ruby a bit.

"Don't you care about havin' fun?"

"I can't afford to have fun, Ruby." Weiss stated in a blunt tone.

"Why not?"

"Because I'm a Schnee." That was the one fact that made Weiss frown. "I'm expected to talk properly, eat properly, act properly, dress properly... I don't get any time for myself."

"...That's dumb." Ruby crossed her arms. "You keep goin' on and on about finding time for youwself, but why not ju'th enjoy what you get ta do?"

Shocking. Plain and simple. For the first time since meeting Ruby, she actually left Weiss herself speechless. What she just said, what she just explained to her... actually made a lot of sense. She was always pestering on finding time to do things herself or make her own time to do things. But why didn't she just enjoy the things she got to do?

She got to horseback ride, experience modern arts, see countless shows in theatres from dramas to comedic arts, and so forth. Yet only now, having to be told this by a simple three-year-old, she was realizing the truth of the problem. She was so focused on having fun on her own she just didn't bother trying to think about having fun with what she's been doing. She had to run away from home just to realize this, and get told by a three-year-old just to realize this.

Actually, now she was facing the most embarrassing moment thus far of her life. A three-year-old, Ruby at that, had to tell her how to have fun. RUBY of all people, taught her that.

Suddenly waking up to a wet bed seemed much more appealing.

"So... just have fun with what I'm doing..." Weiss repeated rubbing her chin.

"Yeah!" Ruby cheered, splashing a big wave of water over Weiss' head. "See?"

"..." It was hard to say if Weiss was still thinking or really angry cause the small grumbling face she was giving her said otherwise. "...Why you little-!"

*SPLASH*

"Hey! Hahaha!"

"Tch...heh heh..." Weiss couldn't honestly believe it. For the first time she got to actually act childish for a change, getting into a splash fight with the toddler almost half her age. And, much to her surprise, she was enjoying it. She was actually enjoying being able to act like a kid for the first time, just doing something as small as splashing water back and forth.

And for once in a long while, she was happy.

...

...

"Ok, when the lady at the front desk comes in here, let me do the explaining ok?" Weiss said as she continued getting dressed.

It was about ten minutes after their little splash fight when the two were finally cleaned off and dressed. With a lack of additional clothes for Ruby, Weiss had to resort to giving her one of her extra clean shirts. Luckily thanks to her small stature, it was big enough to stretch down to Ruby's knees. As for the rest of Weiss' extra clothing, they were still too big for the young toddler, with the rest of it either stretching to the floor, or being too expensive to risk Ruby either tearing or dirtying up once more.

There was also something else she was wearing that made Ruby excited.

"Big girl undies..." Ruby oohed as she continued to look at the white childish panties she was wearing underneath her pulled-up shirt. It was embarrassing for Weiss to give her underwear to near anything, but she didn't have much choice. She didn't have a pair of pants that would fit Ruby, and for obvious reasons she couldn't just let Ruby run around with just a shirt on in case something like a gust of wind "exposed" her in any way.

But that wasn't what really mattered to the young three and a half year old toddler. What really mattered was the fact her mommy was going to be 100% proud of her! For reasons she had yet to understand, her mommy's always been pushing for Ruby to become a big kid. So what better way was there than to wear big girl undies? There was none! This was going to be so exciting when mommy saw her again!

"Try not to get so excited for wearing big kid underwear." Honestly it was a little humorous seeing a little girl getting so excited about wearing older kid clothing. "Anyway, get into the other bed and try to get some sleep. I'll talk to the clerk lady for a minute and then we'll go back to bed, ok?"

"M'kay!" Ruby smiled with another yawn following it. Not once but twice now she was getting to sleep in a large bed! Even if it was in the same room, it was definitely more interesting than sleeping on a simple mattress with blankets and pillows on it. But as she climbed the left side of the large furniture, her curiosity was piqued as she looked out the window. "P...P..."

"Ugh, don't tell me you had another accident." Weiss fretted. Explaining one wet bed would be one thing, explaining two on top of the dirtied clothes that needed to be washed would be a lot harder.

"I didn't," Ruby replied briefly looking back, "I'm just twing to wead the th'ign." Ruby explained. She could recognize a few of the letters across the street, like the P from the word apple, but the rest of the letters were throwing her off. "P... um... Hey Wei'th?"

"What Ruby?" Weiss signed finally straightening out her hair.

"Does a Powice station have some picture thingie?" Ruby asked in a curious tone.

"Yeah, it should look like some star symbol... you know what those look like, right?"

"Umm no," to no surprise of Weiss, "but do they have pointy tings sticking out?"

"Yup, there'll be five tips to it, sometimes six."

"Five?" Ruby poked her chin before counting on her fingers. "Umm one... two... thwee... um..."

"Four, and five." Weiss finished off.

"Oh... den how do you spell powice?"

"Ruby, why are you asking all these questions all of a sudden?" Weiss wondered as she walked over to the bed. For a girl who was excited at the idea of finding the police tomorrow after they woke up, she was sure asking a lot of questions out of nowhere.

"I'm just twying to wead da th'ign over there." Ruby replied pointing over to the clear window. It was still dark out but the added streetlights illuminated the dark side walk on the other side.

"What si-!" No way. This was too perfect. On the other side of the road, through the window, Weiss saw two specific words that brought excitement to her.

Police Station. The one building that was on the opposite side of the hotel they entered from was literally across the street before them.

"P-Police... Ruby that's the Police Station!" Weiss exclaimed with excitement. Ruby was soon to follow suit as her mouth gaped open with joy.

"Huh! I can find mommy!" She cheered.

"Yeah and-!" Weiss paused as she smiled a little. "I... I can get home too." The exciting news brought even more joy to the toddler.

"Does dat mean you wanna see your famiwy again?" She wondered, earning a nod from Weiss.

"Yeah, I've decided. I'm... I'm going to go home and apologize to my mother and father for running away."

Ruby was happy. Weiss was happy. Both girls were happy. Ruby was going to find her mommy after such a long day, and Weiss decided to enjoy the pieces of her life and stop focusing on her own personal time. After all, she wouldn't be able to enjoy anything if she couldn't learn to enjoy the things she was forced to do, which were verily enjoyable all the same.

This day would've been perfect if it wasn't the fact Weiss had to learn that lesson from a three-year-old.

"C'mon, wet's go!" Ruby giggled with excitement as she ran towards the door, jumping a bit to pull the handle and dashing out the room as it opened.

"Haha, Ruby wait!" Weiss called out in excitement, quickly zipping up her backpack as she ran out after the young girl.

At the time, the Clerk from earlier was continuing to read the magazine before her as she waited for anything to happen, specifically for the Schnee girls' parents to show up. None of them had shown up in the last four hours of waiting. She was starting to wonder if she should check up with the girls about this, but before she could make up her mind her attention shifted to the small girl with the oversized shirt running passed the front desk.

"Huh?" She didn't even get time to stop her as Weiss ran passed the desk soon after, looking back as she ran past the lady.

"Hey, change of plans, sorry about the beds, thank you!" Weiss quickly sputtered out before running out the door after Ruby.

"Wait...What about the beds?"

...

...

At the same time, she just stared. Cinder's heart pounded as she continued to just stare at the Police Station's door before her. She was at the edge of the sidewalk as she gazed upon it trying to make up her mind. On the bright side, they would indefinitely send a search out if a lost child was reported missing. The only problem was the chance of anyone recognizing her due to her criminal activities.

She was present at over half the heists she and Roman had pulled in the past in order to collect currencies and dust. And within that time, she came across dozens upon dozens of police forces, most of which were human or faunus, occasionally a robotic security force if they were lucky. The luck came from the fact they could destroy those machines without having to worry about consequences. Kill a robot, people just replace it. Kill a cop though, and they put a personal grudge against the killer and do anything in their power to track them down and arrest them.

But even with that, there was the issue of anyone recognizing who she was. Even with her somewhat shady disguise of wearing a dark black hoodie with a cap underneath to cover her hair, and her grey pants, there was still the possibility of someone recognizing her face. Thankfully the cap pressed down some of her hair that covered the right side of her face, but that didn't get rid of the fear welling up inside her.

If she was caught, everything would be over. She would be forced to run away from the city to avoid being caught, and that's if she even managed to get away. But more importantly, she would never be able to find her little fire flower again. The police might not even believe her if she was discovered before giving out the details of her daughter, and that's provided they don't lock her up first or shoot her on sight.

So for the last five minutes, Cinder's heart was trembling. There was too much riding on this and even more riding on this if she didn't. Annoyingly enough, she also knew the longer she stood in front of this place, the more suspicious someone might get if they see her. So with a heavy heart and a deep breath, she slowly reached for the door.

"This is for Ruby..." She kept muttering to calm herself.

"'Cuse u'th." The little girl said as she and the older-looking girl walked by her trying to get into the same place.

"Oh, sorry Ru-!" No way. There was no way she could believe her eyes. She would've recognized her a second sooner if it wasn't for the new long shirt she was wearing, but there was absolutely zero doubt about who she was. "Ruby?!" Cinder spoke aloud catching the the two girls' attention. Looking back at her, Ruby blinked as Cinder pulled the bang of hair out of her eye, revealing her face completely.

"M-Mommy...?" Like the mother, Ruby was also dumbfounded with the sight, not recognizing her due to the strange clothes she was wearing.

"RUBY!" Cinder cried gratefully, quickly sweeping her little girl up in a twirl as she hugged her tightly.

"Mommy!" Unlike Cinder, Ruby just squealed in delight as she threw her small arms around Cinder's neck as tight as she could. The mother herself was crying tears of joy for the first time in awhile,

She couldn't believe it. She honestly couldn't believe it. Even when holding her in her own arms, the tearful Cinder could not believe she found Ruby right before her. Seconds before either of them entered the Police Station, seconds before Cinder possibly damned herself to whatever fate she would receive upon stepping inside the station, she found her little flower when she needed her most.

"I found you, mommy!" Ruby cheered again,

"Yes, yes you did sweetie, you did." Cinder sniffled silently to herself as she dried her own tears.

As for Weiss, she simply smiled. To be honest, she didn't know what to expect from seeing a family member of Ruby, given how the toddler described her, but she had to admit she seemd perfectly normal. Just a simple, normal, loving and caring mother like her own.

Which was a big compliment given Weiss' own heritage.

Cinder sniffled a little before looking back at her daughter curiously. "Sweetie, what happened to you? Don't you know how worried I was about you?!" To her regret, Ruby almost began tearing up at hearing this.

"D-Did... Did I make you angwy, mommy?" She asked sniffling slightly.

"N-No, of course not!" Cinder insisted now drying Ruby's eyes. "I was just... surprised is all. Where did you go?"

"Oh, I was kidnapped." She said casually with a smile. A mix of shock and confusion filled Cinder's mind.

"You were kidnapped?" Hell hath no fury like a mother's wrath.

And for the sake of whoever took her daughter, they better pray Hell gets to them first.

"Huff, I didn't kidnap her," Weiss replied with a sigh, "she ended up following me from your place of business this morning. We've been trying to find a Police Station to get her home all day." Cinder could only blink as she stared at the mysterious girl, almost forgetting about her entirely until she spoke.

"Ruby, who is this?" Cinder asked. With a smile and a nod, Weiss curtsied before her.

"My name is Weiss Schnee mam," Weiss greeted politely, "a pleasure to meet you."

"..." Cinder just stared. "Weiss... Schnee? Of the Schnee Dust Company?"

"That is correct." Weiss nodded with a smile. It was nice to meet someone refined enough to recognize her family name.

Perfect.

This was officially too perfect.

Not only did she find her daughter once more, but her daughter ended up bringing a Schnee right to her literal feet.

There was no end to the possibilities this could benefit them. Money, resources, power. They could demand literally anything from the Schnee household and they would be forced to give in if they wanted to see their daughter again alive. There was no possible downside to any of this! This was like finding a lottery ticket with the winning numbers on it! But instead of winning just money, they could win whatever their heart desired!

And right before they entered the Police Station too, the only place she would be safe from them. She could drag her back to their next hideout, devise a plan of what to do to her and what to demand from her family! It was all too easy-

"We can help hew, wight mommy?" Ruby asked with a smile, snapping Cinder out of her thoughts.

"W-What?" She stuttered looking back to her angel.

"She needs help getting back to her mommy and daddy. So we can help hew, wight?"

Of course, there was that one dilemma. Her own little angel, Ruby. She couldn't just abduct her new friend before her. She didn't know what the two had been through till now, but given Ruby's excited expression just from asking to help her, she could tell she already made friends with the Schnee girl. That alone caused too many problems.

She needed to take her hostage, she needed to be aware she was a hostage so she was afraid if they made a ransom video or call. But she just couldn't break her little girl's heart, especially seeing how this Schnee girl was responsible for bringing her little girl back to her in the first place.

So what was she supposed to do?

"W-Well, sweetie...I... I um..."

*WooooOOOOOooooOOOoooo*

Cinder was suddenly silenced by the sounds of sirens going off. From Police Cars to even a helicopter spotlighting the three of them, the front of the station was suddenly surrounded with security.

This just went from perfect to horrible. She barely even touched the door handle and the police already had her surrounded on all fronts. She could normally fight her way passed these armed simpletons with mild difficulty, but she didn't want to risk Ruby getting terrified or hurt throughout the process.

At the same time, that also meant nobody would try to hurt her as long as she had a child in her arms and one near her leg, but even that was just a matter of time before someone changed their mind and went postal.

And then, it appeared. A large black limousine in pristine condition, in the middle of all these armed forces. And with the doors opening on both ends, two figures only familiar to Weiss appeared. One wearing an elegant long white dress, and the other dressed in similar colors, wearing a regal double-breasted jacket while donning a combed black-colored hair and small thin moustache.

"Mother?" Weiss called out."

"Weiss!" Her mother called out in relief, running over as she scooped her daughter into her arms. "I"m so glad we found you!" She cried.

"I... I'm glad I found you too..." Weiss teared up as she hugged her mother in turn. "I'm so sorry mother, I-I just... I'm sorry for running away, I-I just-"

"Shh shh shh, it's alright dear, it's alright." Her mother assured. "We can talk about this later, I'm just glad you're okay."

Well, that was both relief and disappointment to the young woman who just watched the admittedly-touching scene before her. The relief came from realizing the security force here wasn't here for Cinder herself, they were here for Weiss Schnee. The disappointing part was knowing there was no way she was going to possibly abduct Weiss now, provided she went along with it.

"But I don't understand, how did you find me?" Weiss asked in confusion.

"Well fortunately, you had the credit card we gave you." Her father explained as he approached. "It was easy to find you thanks to your recent expenditures."

That was a fact they owed to Ruby herself. If it wasn't for the several purchases of food, drinks, and the hotel they recently purchased a room from, the finding would've taken indefinitely longer than this. Come to think of it, they might never have been able to track her if it wasn't for Ruby.

Looking back at the other woman in question, her father smiled calmly as he walked before Cinder. "My name is Jacquess Schnee." He greeted with a bow. Cinder couldn't help but still feel a little nervous at the idea he might know her if he saw her face from this close. He never met her in person nor heard what the thief looked like, but he was at least aware of the several robberies that took place within this city, which included some Dust industries. "You have my eternal gratitude for finding my daughter for me."

"I-It was nothing." Cinder replied shifting her eyes away a little.

By now, there were probably at least one or two newsman and cameramen who were gazing upon the scene. The mixture of police vehicles and overhead spotlight was a breeding ground for the numerous people and faces the scene attracted. Of course the police held the numerous people back, all of whom were curious at the sight of the prestigious Schnee family before them, with only a few of the news people getting any questions in with the cops.

Despite how seemingly peaceful and joyful this scene appeared, it only disgusted Cinder. It was a sham, nothing more. The "touching reunion", the grateful appearance of the father before her, it was nothing more than a simple display to put forth before the media, to improve upon the image of the Dust Schnee Company itself. It was revolting. Even if the mother herself actually was overjoyed at the sight, the man before her was wretched. If he truly cared, he would've gone over to Weiss' side and stuck there until it was over.

She loved Ruby. One day she might even consider Ruby helping in the "business" that they dealt with, with all the crime and everything. But there was no way, absolutely no chance, Cinder would ever use Ruby's mere appearance to better her own image. She would sooner burn herself alive before she would consider using Ruby for such a putrid purpose.

"Here," Jacques continued handing Cinder a card, "if ever in the future you need anything, call me. A Schnee always return a favor."

"I-... Thank you, you're too kind." Cinder forced herself to say. It might not have been money, or some fancy piece of rich jewelry, but it was enough. A favor from a Schnee was a very valuable thing to have. They could ask for anything, in their life time or the next generation's life time, and a Schnee would be required to fulfill it. The gold embroiderment upon the card was proof of the card's owner, and a Schnee would never allow the public to know that they failed to return a promised favor. It was bad credibility, and bad image.

Just like this disgusting sight.

"It looks like this is farewell, Ruby." Weiss said looking back to, what she could safely consider, friend. Nodding, the toddler waved excitedly in turn.

"Byebye Wei'th, wet's pway again weal soon!" Ruby lisped with a smile.

"Ha, if I ever come back, I'll be sure to." Weiss agreed.

Sadly, she knew better than that. Her parents would be on her and ensure she wouldn't run away again for a good long while, not that she would try. She caused so much panic and worry for her mother that she couldn't think about running away again, yet she lied to Ruby all the same. She didn't have the heart to break her's after all they've been through even with the bad times.

Overall, it was a pleasant experience to meet Ruby, one Weiss wouldn't forget on her name as a Schnee, for a long time. And who knows.

Maybe they'll meet again one day...

...

...

"Ok... annnnd open." Cinder instructed, waiting for the exciting look to grow on Ruby's face.

Opening her eyes, blinking them clear from the mild sleepiness, Ruby was shocked at the sight before her.

It looked like a palace before her, at least in comparison to the rusty old warehouses they used to live in. The floors were polished in fine clear wood, there was a large clear view of the sky through the skylit roof above them, and a door to a patio outside. It's crystal clear windows gave view to all the buildings before them but now thanks to the additional height, they could see far beyond the city itself, even to the far away woods.

The inside itself was nothing to gawk at either. While she had yet to feel it, the luxurious leather couches were amazing with the perfect smoothness of a massage bed, and the firmness to support any back pressed upon them. They were placed before a large wooden ceramic table, smoother than any piece of paper you could find. And both these items were placed before a large fireplace with an even larger flat-screen TV above that. Ruby had never seen such a technical marvel like the TV, with majority of the warehouses they went to almost never having one.

Don't even get her started on the kitchen. Well to be fair as a toddler, she probably wouldn't understand the greatness of the kitchen anyway that was on the opposite end of the beautiful living room. It housed several silver glistening sinks with beautiful mahogany cupboards above and below the counters. There were also several ovens cleaned from top to bottom, each with several similar settings and their own unique one for numerous qualities of baking. There were even a dozen stoves placed along the countertops, perfect for any frying situation needed, be they pancakes or otherwise.

And these were just these rooms! She hasn't even seen the numerous bedrooms yet.

They were currently in a penthouse of the largest apartment complex within the city, which would forever be Ruby's new home.

"So, what do you think, sweetie?" Cinder asked curiously with an expectant smile.

"It's so pwetty... Can we visit it a wot?" Ruby asked, not understanding the point of this revelation. Cinder only chuckled at this.

"Heh heh, sweetie, this is going to be our new home." She revealed.

"Weally?!" Ruby shouted in excitement. This was the closest thing to a room from a castle like those stories her mother read to her each night. The only thing that could make it better was if-

 _*creeeeeeeak*_

"Huh?" Ruby looked back in curiosity as she heard the door slowly creak open. Right before her eyes, the only possible thing that could make this night any better walked in. "Sissy Ne-Ne!" Ruby chirped. Cinder could only chuckle again as Ruby squirmed in her arms, gently placing her on the floor before watching her toddle over to her ten-year-old sister as fast as her little legs could run.

The ice-cream girl herself could only smile as she kneeled down, embracing Ruby in a tightly warm hug of both relief and joy. She couldn't believe it when Roman woke her up in the middle of the night to tell her that Ruby had been found, having fallen asleep from tiredness after trying to stay away all night just in case. She couldn't sleep well thanks to Ruby's disappearance, but now she could safely say she would rest peacefully forevermore.

This was the new arrangement that the trio had before them.

This was going to be their new home.

Despite all that happened, Cinder did offer Roman a place within the penthouse too, seeing how there were at least four bedrooms and a guest bedroom they would need to sort out later, but the Hatter simply declined. Not out of regret from causing a majority of the problems that happened today anyway, but simply due to security reasons. His face was the most seen at the numerous heists they pulled off, and with all the security cameras surrounding this entire building, it would be like walking through a landmine zone he would have to navigate through carefully each time he wanted to come up here.

Besides, someone needed to keep an eye on the henchmen and warehouses.

Add that with the fact he would need to climb the stairs constantly up twenty floors since the elevators had cameras, it would take him nearly half an hour to walk up and down each time he wanted to come in. He would save his introductions for special circumstances, whatever and whenever they were.

Because of this, it took quite a lot of goading to convince Neo to all of this. First off, he wanted her to have a better life too, even as his Right-hand assistant, and being a kid sleeping in a warehouse constantly would just drag on. Second, like everything else, she was still too loyal to Roman. She loved Ruby with all her heart, but she couldn't fathom leaving Roman's side for so long, not when there were things she could do to help him.

It took nearly twenty full minutes of convincing, but Roman eventually got her to agree to live with Cinder and Ruby up here. She would basically be a full-time sister, part-time babysitter for little Ruby. She would constantly watch over her while Cinder was out and about with her special job, and she would ensure Ruby was still happy as long as she was up here.

Why else would she be carrying nearly four duffle bags at once with her's, Cinder's, and Ruby's belongings in them? They would be one big happy family, at least the closest to what Ruby had.

"Come here sweetie," Cinder said picking up Ruby once more, "I want to show you something." Neo herself just smiled as she watched Cinder bring her outside to the surrounding patios for a short while before looking around the penthouse itself. This was going to be a fun place to live.

As for Ruby, she oohed and awed at the sight before her. There were millions of tiny stars above her as Cinder revealed the world to her, tiny little specs that illuminated the skies above. They would be perfect little nightlights for the young girl if she was ever out of her room at night.

"From now on, if you ever find yourself lost in the city, just look for the tallest building around." Cinder stated. "You'll find your home on the highest building around, ok?"

"Ok..." Ruby's gaze shifted from the sky slowly to the city below. For a short while she was ecstatic at the sight, seeing the dozens upon dozens of city lights brighten up the city. Forget the speckles in the sky, this would make the perfect nightlight to her! At least it did before Ruby looked any farther down. It was only then did she regret it as she realized how high up they were, feeling the wind brush passed her tiny hairs. What few cars she saw driving here and there looked nothing more like little ants. She couldn't even see any of the people if there were any at this point. She could only tear up as she cried into her mother's shoulder frightened. "Ah! Don't wet go!" She begged. Cinder smiled sweetly as she hugged her little Rose.

"Don't worry sweetie. I'll never let you go again..."

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...

 _ **A/N: Annnnnd I think we reached a good point there! Another fun chapter, albeit probably shorter than the last (which I have yet to confirm until I just post this on 's publishing and see the word count- btw word of advice for fanfiction writers, always write on either yahoo email drafts or gmail drafts, thats way you can always write wherever you are with internet access :D!)**_

 _ **So with that said, we reached the conclusion of Ruby's Day Out! Hope it was fun for the masses ^^! After this, we'll move onto our next timeskip as reach Ruby's age of 5! Who knows what little wonder she'll get into, and who also knows WHO she might get to meet next chapter.**_

 _ **But either way, hope you all enjoyed the adorable endeavor. Leave a like fave and review if you enjoyed and what you enjoyed with it ^^. We'll be coming around more chapters, granted probably shorter, but faster posted, so hope you like them all the same.**_

 _ **With that said, thanks for the support guys, and hope to see you next chapter too ^^!**_


	14. Mornings with Mom and Sis

**_A/N: Hiya folks, sorry for the wait :D! Word of warning, good portion of this is descriptions and events. Kinda had to, a lot changes over a simple year and a half (nearly two due to a certain girl's birthday coming up...) , so I had to explain some things that happened here and there. Also, originally this was going to be one big chapter cause I surprisingly wrote twice as much as this (what can i say? I had fun ^^) but I ended up with a rather long chapter, so I wasn't sure if people wanted his 6-7k fic or a 12k+ chapter to read :/ so I went down the middle and chose the first half now. if it means anything, it does mean the next update is already ready for posting tomorrow ^^!_**

 ** _So with that said: Enjoy!_**

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 _*Snoooooore*_

The young woman lied upon the bed with her body sprawled out all over the place. She had tossed and turned in the middle of the night, but thankfully she appeared to find a position her body was content with. Snoring into the pillow, she was oblivious to the creaking door that opened slightly, or the small figure that made it's way to the bottom of her bed side.

To be honest, she was unaware of a lot of things, but how could she be blamed? The bed was so comfortable and relaxing, it took away all the stress of her daily life that she wished she could just fuse with the bed for the rest of her life. Otherwise she would've paid attention to the small figure pulling her at her feet excitedly, the little girl giggling as she tried to shake her mother awake.

"Mommy!" Ruby spoke quietly as she shook Cinder's bare feet. "Mama, wake up!"

"Mmh...wake me in the morning'sh..." Cinder mumbled as she buried her head further into the pillow.

"Mmh it is morning!" Ruby stated as she tried pulling her mother out of bed. "Wah-!" Sadly all she resulted in was accidentally slipping and sliding herself onto the floor, thanks to her little bunny slippers. "Mmmmh..." The five-year-old grumbled as she got back to her feet. With a good spit in her hands like she's seen in the movies, she gave one more grand tug as she tried to lift the beast from her slumber. "C'mon sleepyhead, time to get up!" The 5-year-old grumbled.

"Snnnkkkk... take it up with my lawyer..." Cinder snored. "Why don't you go play with your sister or something, sweetie? Mommy's trying to sleep."

"Mmmh fine..." Ruby moaned as she exited the bedroom.

Cinder didn't like doing anything that disappointed her young one, but she just needed some sleep. Yesterday's heist took it's toll on her. Several of their goons ended up getting caught, another several of them ended up triggering the alarms followed by getting caught, and don't even get her started on the morons who pulled over their vehicles when the police sirens called them to pull over. Seriously, it was beginning to get hard to find good help these days. What was even harder was finding help that remained good help.

Because of this, Cinder didn't get home last night until two in the morning, obviously leaving a worried Ruby up all night as she waited for her dear mother. If there was any comfort to this detail, there was a beyond-adorable sight Cinder came home to late that night: a simple scene of Ruby sleeping in Neo's arms, both girls in their pajamas, and both girls sleeping on the couch while a simple kid's cartoon show was playing on the TV.

Cinder would've gladly given up her right hand for a camera right at that moment to forever capture that scene. Sadly, even if she did, she probably wouldn't have bothered taking a picture, being too exhausted with the night's events. All she could do at that time was wake Neo up quietly without disturbing Ruby, helping the young pre-teen to her bed before tucking the two of them in. She gave the two a small kiss to the forehead as she exited the room, quietly closing the door behind them just enough so the hallway light was dimly filling the room in case they woke up in the middle of the night.

To be honest, it's been a hectic near-two years for the trio. Suffice to say, to all surprise, Cinder began to develop similar feelings for the preteen Neo as she did Ruby. She couldn't fairly say she loved Neo as much as she did with Ruby, but after the many days the two spent together raising Ruby, with Neo under the guise of being Ruby's older sister, it was easy to see Cinder slowly growing attached to the small twin-colored girl.

It wasn't like Neo wasn't returning the same feelings or the same amount either. She was like a mother to her too, and she grew a bit attached as well. Like Cinder with Ruby, she obviously didn't care for Cinder as much as she did for Roman, but still enough to tell the two were starting to grow close.

All in all, the two became equally close to one another. Not as much as their personal choices, but closer all the same.

 _*creeeeeak*_

"Hm..." Cinder mumbled silently to herself as she heard the door open again. No doubt Ruby returned to pester her some more and get her mother out of bed. It was surprising seeing a five-year-old up this early in the morning. Or maybe that was just Cinder's personal view, seeing how it was about 8:30 in the morning. She was still exhausted from yesterday's events but if her little angel wanted her up so badly, she might as well raise herself out soon.

"One..." Ruby quietly whispered to her nearby partner in crime. "Two..." Only then did Cinder's ear twitch at the sound of that soft voice, but by the time she registered what was going on, it was already too late. "THREE!" With a sudden yell, Cinder jerked from surprise as she felt a pair of hands suddenly grip the heels of her feet, being yanked with enough force to pull the slumbering mother off the bed to the floor in front of it.

"Wah-!" Cinder yelped as she fell from the bed, landing with a solid thud. "Oww..." She mumbled looking over again.

Sure enough, there they were. Ruby in her red Pajamas with orange hearts on them, and Neo with her pure sky blue pajamas with white fluffy clouds patterned across them.

With the amount of time Ruby and Neo had been spending bonding with one another, they started to take on one another's mannerisms. There wasn't much for Neo to take from Ruby, save for some childish antics here and there when playing with her, but Ruby was taking quite a bit from Neo. Like drawing out pictures more often of things when she wanted to talk about something, making a small game out of it with her mother who struggled due to Ruby's... "interesting" drawing quality.

At the same time, the two siblings started getting matching outfits here and there. While there weren't many things they had in similar taste when it came to fashion, they could get similar-looking outfits, like these plain and simple colored pajamas with patterns across them. Simple things, but things that meant enough to the siblings in question.

"Haha, we got ya mommy!" Ruby giggled with delight. Her delight was short lived though as she noticed the sinister glare Cinder returned to her. "M...Mommy?"

"Ruby Fall..." Cinder grumbled in disgust. "Do you remember...everything I said... about what would happen if you bothered me like this one more time..." She growled raising her fist slowly. Ruby was frozen with fear, only capable of trembling in horror as she saw her mother's rage build.

"I-I'm sorry mama, it won't happen again-!" Ruby pleaded for forgiveness.

"It's too late, little Miss Fall." Cinder retorted, the fire in her eyes blazing out of control. "You need to be punished... It's the only way you'll learn..."

"N-No, I promise," Ruby begged, "I-I learned my lesson! It won't happen-"

"Too late!" Cinder snapped. "Now face your punishment..."

This was awful! This was horrifying! Her mother warned her time and time again, but she never listened! Oh why oh why did she not listen?! She was a good girl, honest! She did everything in her power to make her mother happy! But now it was all going to come to an untimely end. She was about to experience horror on a whole new level of cruelty and despair! All she could do now was wait, wait for her life to flash before her eyes before it was all over!

"COME HERE YOU!" Cinder growled playfully as she pulled Ruby over by her feet.

"Ah! no! St-aha! Ahahahaha! Stop please! I beg you!" Ruby was suffering from bouts of extreme laughter. There was no hope or escape from the evil dreaded Claw, her mother's ultimate weapons! Each hand with those five terrifying fingers of torment, all wiggling across the sides of her belly and stomach in a never ending spiral of miserable laughter. She was absolutely powerless against the dreaded tickling demon before her!

"Suffer infidel, suffer my horrible wrath!" Cinder squealed with delight as she punished Ruby without end.

"Ahahah! Ech-! S-Sis, save- ahahaha- save me!" Ruby pleaded, tears of laughter pouring from her eyes.

"Neo, go for the feet!" Cinder commanded. With a mischievous grin, the older sibling wrangled with Ruby's legs until she got a good grip on the right leg. With a quirky grin on her face, she quickly slipped one of her bunny slippers off, leaving her sock-worn foot completely exposed and unprotected from her own wriggling fingers.

"Ahaha-! N-No! Sis! You traitor! You're both traitors!" Ruby screamed in bouts of laughter. "Ahahahahahaha~!"

This was inhumane! What kind of sick evil god would allow horrible torment like this to befall a sweet and innocent girl like herself?! Her mother was the only one who could normally protect her against terrors like this, but she was the one causing the terror! And Neo, her sweet, beloved, older sister, who she trusted with her life, her once glorious righthand girl, turned traitor in under a mere second! What kind of horrible, unruly, unjust, and all around evil god would allow this sorta thing to happen to someone as innocent as her?!

She would see them court martialed! They would be hanged! Burned at the stake! Forced to eat vegetables! There would be no end to the horrifying ordeals Ruby would see them punished for! If only some miracle could save her!

"Hahaha..." This was Cinder's own personal enjoyment. There would always be Ruby, the one single pride of her life that would bring absolute joy and happiness to her life. And due to the hassle of yesterday's busted heist, she needed to lay low for the next few days which meant refraining from pulling any heists for awhile. All of this equaled excitement as it meant a few days off of work, and more time for her darling.

There were days where she would be exhausted, days where she would be depressed, days where work became so overbearing that sometimes she would just like to drop dead from exhaustion. But this, these single glorious moments where she had time to herself Ruby were the only things that made it all worthwhile. These moments where she could just enjoy life with her daughter, and respectfully Neo who enjoyed playing around just as much with them. It was nothing more than one big happy family, one she could gladly call hers.

The last year and a half had been filled with surprises, good and bad times, pretty much anything like a normal family went through. Starting from Ruby, she was officially a self-titled "Big Kid" like her mommy always wanted her to be, being out of pull-ups and into typical big girl underwear, much like her big sister, Neo. However, night time was still a bit of a different story. She still wore pull-ups for that. Thankfully, they no longer had issues passed simple "wetting" ordeals, but she still wet the bed from time to time like most young children.

On the bright side, it was getting progressively better. From four years old, she only wet the bed once or twice a week. Now she was proudly only having that slight issue a couple times a month. But even with that, she had more dry nights than not, much like this morning. It was something she herself was proud of and something Cinder was glad she was growing out of. She figured within the next few months she would finally grow out of it for good.

With said issues aside, most of the days followed the same routine for the young Ruby. From the morning till about 9 or 10, she got to play with her whole family, her sister and mother specifically, as they bathed, got dressed, had breakfast together, and sometimes even watched cartoons with each other for a few minutes before Cinder went to her job.

After that, it would be just Ruby and Neo hanging out around the penthouse as they played with one another, Neo being in charge of keeping the little girl occupied until her loving and sweet endearing mother returned from her job. On the luckiest of days, she returned sometime in the afternoon after finishing work early, which was really just a matter of having a short day of planning for the next heist and taking inventory of what they had. On the unluckiest of days, sometimes Ruby would wait all night like last night for her mother to return.

There was one point where Cinder hadn't come home for over two days, despite the phone call from Roman Neo got assuring her that Cinder was fine and to assure Ruby. It wasn't until after he hung up he realized how that might be seen as difficult. Either way, for nearly second half of the second day without Cinder, Ruby was in a complete sobbing breakdown, crying for several hours missing her mommy until she cried herself to sleep. It wasn't till the third day around noon when Cinder finally returned home, the delay due to needing to evade the security that tracked her for nearly a full day following a busted heist.

She was surprised to return home to a sobbing three-and-a-half-year-old until Neo managed to write and explain why Ruby was so broken up and sad, embracing her in a warm hug for nearly an hour to a Ruby who wouldn't stop crying until shortly after her mother showed up. It took almost several more days before Cinder to part with her little one once again, the young child incapable of letting her mother leave again out of fear of her never coming home.

In all honesty, it probably wouldn't have mattered anyway. Cinder missed her little Rose too much too.

From her age of three and a half to four, the penthouse was a place of wonder for the young toddler. She had fun exploring the rooms no matter how repetitive it got for the first few weeks, admiring how pretty they all looked to the young toddler, especially after she got to see how her bedroom looked.

Her bedroom housed a large wall-sized window, stretching from the left corner all the way to the right, with a large sliding glass door accessible to go upon the patio. Of course, Ruby would still be too small to even climb over the patio's ledge, but that wasn't anywhere near an issue since the young toddler was already afraid of the height they were set upon to even go near it.

As for her bedroom, it was classic and vibrant in detail with a large two person bed right in the middle with the softest bedsheets and mattress she ever lied upon. And to complete it like any kid's room, on the opposite end of the bed, was a wide drawer with numerous openings and cupboards for her clothes. Upon that little piece of furniture was the largest flat-screen TV Ruby's ever seen, at least this close in person.

It was actually a bit smaller than the one in the living room, but only by a few inches. Mix that with how it was closer when Ruby could watch from it, and it was really hard to tell.

Actually, a lot of the bedrooms were like this setting. Ruby's was the only one that had any outside patio to it, but there weren't any complaints to be had from the other sharers of the apartment. It wasn't just due to the fact they've yet to ever experience luxury like this, one they could only afford thanks to the support of the current White Fang Leaders, the Belladonnas, they could live like Kings, Queens, and Princessies as Ruby put it.

Speaking of the Belladonnas, Ruby enjoyed their company, or to be more accurate, the company of her other "big sister", Blake. The playdates they had were numerous and fun, having seen them probably at least once or twice a month. When Blake first saw the awesome new home Ruby had, she was completely awestruck. Her first and only decree was begging her parents to let her live with Ruby at their awesome house, yet sadly her parents reminded her if she lived here her friends back home would miss her too much, to her regret.

Still, the times they got to visit were chalked full of fun for the Four-year-old, the seven-year-old, and the then eleven-year-old Neo who watched over them. She was only in charge of watching over them if the parents were already in the penthouse too, otherwise it usually resulted in either Blake's mother watching over them, or Ruby's mother watching over them while the Belladonnas discussed business with Roman somewhere else in the city, usually the warehouses.

For the things the children did, they usually varied depending on the month and season. Two of the seasonal holidays Ruby got to enjoy with Blake was her first ever Halloween, as well as her first ever Christmas, at least that she could remember.

Both cases were a story for a different time.

All the same, for the non-holiday days they got to spend together, they always had a lot of fun activities to choose from. Sometimes they would watch marathon specials of cartoon shows, sometimes they would draw or play at a park Neo would take them to a few blocks away, or, the one thing all three of them equally loved, baking!

There were numerous goodies and treats the trio would often try to make, from simple pancakes to delicious cakes! There were two notable times they tried baking that really left an impact on the parents- the first time when they came home to discover the ENTIRE penthouse, at least everything surrounding the Kitchen, was covered in flour, including the three seemingly innocent looking girls. The looks on their flour-covered faces were too precious for them to punish, especially since room service could handle that while the mothers gave their kids a bath.

Which was the one day Ruby learned a valuable lesson from her half-kitty-sister: Cats hate water.

The other noteable cooking day was when the trio made a batch of... "interesting-looking" cookies for their mommies! The faces they made when they saw the cookies were filled with excitement every time the two of them saw their mothers, the faces made when taking a bite of the cookies filled them with so much joy and wonder it brought tears to their eyes, and the green-colored skin growing on their smiling faces assured them their mothers loved each and every nibble of the cookies with all their heart!

...Yet for some reason they ended up with food poisoning the next morning. If there was any up side to that, it's that Blake got to spend another day with Ruby as her mother recovered.

So overall, the siblings had plenty of fun with each other during their numerous play dates with one another.

Ruby was happy. Neo was happy. Cinder was happy. This was their happiness. And this was a routine everyday.

By now, the three girls were situated in the spacious bathroom as they washed up for the day. The rest of the penthouse was donned with only the most decorative features and high quality appliances, and the bathroom was no exception.

Aside from it's beautifully decorated sink with several cabinets, it's golden faucets and drains, and the natural cupboards that housed various washing furnitures compared to the average bathroom. For starters, this bathroom didn't house just one, not two, but three washing appliances consisting of a regular tub in the middle, a massage tub on the left side, and a crystal clear shower space on the right side of it. Each of these pieces of furniture came with their own soap trays and gold-plated rails for the showers.

That didn't matter to the youngest of the three though. She was just happy being able to play with the relaxing bubbles in the soothing massage tub with her sister. On most days her mother would usually bathe at the same time as the rest of them, but she would usually wash herself within the personal shower these days. Not that she didn't want to bathe with her angel, far from it, but she had to be fair and at least share her with her older sister who had grown more attached to the young girl as the months went by. Besides, she could still admire the sight of the young girl playing with Neo as they bathed.

Between waking up and getting bathed, dressed, and ready for the day, the trio usually found themselves having breakfast after the next half-hour. Like everything else that changed as Ruby grew up, her outfits did too. As opposed to the typical overalls she once wore as a toddler, she was now dressed with a typical pink shirt and light brown pants. Much like her pajamas, the shirt had a simple large white heart right in the belly of it, something Ruby always loved because it was her way of showing mommy how much she loved her.

For the other two, their outfits changed only slightly in comparison to the young girl's. Neo began sporting a white shirt with a thin light blue overcoat that stretched down to just above her knees while wearing a simple white long-sleeve shirt underneath. Her pants were another simple thin piece of clothing, being black in color and stretching down just to her ankles where her white shoes were located. As for Cinder, her outfit was pretty basic in comparison to the rest. She wore a simple red short-sleeve shirt that stretched just above her thigh by a mere inch, as well as casual blue jeans like any simple outfit. It might not have been much in terms of appearance, but it was nothing more than a disguise.

Or perhaps her "work clothes" could be seen as the disguise. Whenever she went off to work, heading off to whatever hideout the rest of the team was located in, she always changed back into her long red mini-dress which left her shoulders exposed. It was a bit redundant having to change between these clothes to her daily clothes, but it gave off the best her disguise had to offer. She couldn't really do much with changing her hair save for dying it or cutting it, and that would just change it so any culprits at a heist would recognize her by her new hairstyle. The dress she wore when working at least provided some semblance of mystery.

"So," Cinder began talking as she continued making breakfast, stirring some batter for Ruby's favorite pancakes, "I believe a certain girl has a birthday coming up in a few weeks..."

"Ooh! Me! it's mine! My birthday!" Ruby squealed with excitement, waving her hand as she sat on the stool next to Neo at the island's countertop.

"Hmm... now who's was it again?" Cinder spoke aloud as she tapped her chin.

"Meee!" Ruby giggled. "It was me!"

"Oh, now I remember! It was Neo's, right?" Cinder asked teasingly. The knowing nod Neo returned her only helped in the fun teasing.

"What?!" Ruby blinked in disbelief. She knew when Neo's birthday was, or at least the month of it since she was still trying to figure out the exact day, and she knew Neo's birthday was at least several months away.

"How could I have forgotten? Of course it's Neo's birthday! We'll have games, go out to eat, have lots of presents..." She paused curiously as she poked her chin. "Oh, but if we did that, we wouldn't have any money left to celebrate little Ruby's then." With a simple shrug, she casually smiled as she flipped the pancakes. "Oh well, I guess we'll just have to skip her's this year."

"N-No!" Ruby cried as she began to tear up, hopping from the stool as she ran to her mother's legs. "Mommy, it's my birthdaaaay...eh heh..." She sniffled.

'Oh, I know sweetie, I know." Cinder apologized lifting her daughter with one arm as she continued to heat the pancakes. "I was just teasing, ok? We'll have a big party and everything. We'll even invite Blake over for a sleepover! How does that sound sweetheart?"

"Sniff... kay... " Ruby replied, seeming to agree with her decision. In truth it was actually more of a matter of convenience for Cinder that the next meeting she had with the White Fang Leaders was near Ruby's birthday, so this way would be killing two birds with one stone.

So to speak.

"That's good," she said giving her girl a small peck on the forehead, "now, why don't we add some of your favorite chocolate chips and make some task chocolate chip pan-" Cinder was cut off as she saw the missing ingredient. She had a large handful of chips in the bowl next to the pan, and now they were suddenly missing. "Hey, where'd the chip's go?" Within the few seconds she spent looking around, she couldn't help but notice as Neo was covering her mouth with her eyes clothed, chuckling at the sight. "What?" It took no longer than before until she realized what she was laughing at. For some strange and mysterious reason, Ruby happened to be chewing on something quietly as she turned her head away. She didn't even need to spend a second to realize where the chocolate chips suddenly disappeared to, the small chocolate stain on the right corner of Ruby's lip confirming her suspicion. "Gee Ruby, any idea where the chocolate went?" She asked in a knowing tone.

Ruby took a moment to swallow the rest of the contents in her mouth before replying, "I don't knoooow..." She said innocently.

"Hehehe, you little thief!" Cinder chuckled as she began tickling Ruby's side.

"Tchahahahaha!" Ruby was powerless as the claw once again tortured her.

It was rather fitting that the five-year-old Ruby got revenge against her mother. For the inhumane threat against her own birthday, Ruby found only one suitable punishment for this transgression, and that was to steal a handful of the chips that she could as her mother looked away! It was quite a fitting bit of revenge all things considered, and Cinder also had to give her credit for her sneakiness. Every day she managed to pull a trick like this or some prank along with Neo, her mother would both find it rather humorous and be a little more proud of her for how cunning and resourceful her little flower was.

It was during these moments Cinder became more and more convinced that Ruby could help run their future plans together. But that was still a ways off.

The rest of the morning played out the same as it usually did, regardless of days off. The three chatted a bit, or as close to chatting as Neo could commit with her pictures, they enjoyed mother's delicious breakfast pancakes, and the two children even watched cartoons for a bit as Cinder washed the dishes while humming to herself. With a few days off, and a bright cheery morning to wake up to, there was only one way to spend it that came to Cinder's mind.

"So sweetie, how would you like to go out to the Park today?" Cinder asked as she continued washing the dishes. From the front of the couch, Ruby stood on top of the cushions as she looked back with excitement.

"Really?" Her excitement was all she needed to confirm it.

These days, Cinder wasn't as worried about anyone coming across Ruby anymore. If anyone was still looking for her, there haven't been any search warrants or missing posters around town. Come to think of it, ever since Cinder took Ruby that night, she hadn't seen or heard mention of anyone looking for the little girl. Now in all fairness, part of that was probably due to the lack of remains or possibility that Ruby was still alive. When people disappeared after exploring the surrounding woods of town, there was usually only one cause behind that.

The Grimm.

And because of that, the idea of going around and asking to find a missing person outside the city was rather pointless. It was like asking to find a simple button in a garbage dump; if the garbage wasn't collected and burned away already, it soon would be and make the entire search pointless. Of course that didn't mean no one ever tried to find a missing person in the woods. This was usually left up to the Hunters and Huntresses of Remnant, specialized warriors trained to fight the Grimm and protect everyone from any and all evil forces of the world. But even then there was no news of Ruby's disappearance or even her mother's.

It almost sickened Cinder. Either the people gave up any chance of finding her, or they just didn't care enough. If it was Cinder herself, she would've searched to the ends of the earth for her little girl.

That didn't mean she let Ruby out of the house that often. Even with this, she still didn't want to take the small chance someone would recognize her. They only ever went out once in awhile for the park, unless Blake was with them. Then at least they could pass her off as Ruby's sister too.

"Yup, it's a bright and sunny day out," Cinder continued, "so I was thinking we could all play at the park for a bit, and maybe go out for ice-cream after." Cinder chuckled mentally as that comment caught Neo's attention this time. Ruby was definitely growing on her, including her personality. "Or maybe even go to the bakery and pick up a big batch of cookies."

"Huh!" Ruby gasped with shock, looking to her sister briefly before back to her mother. "Yes! Yes yes yes!" She cheered jumping up and down on the cushions.

"Heh heh, alright alright, calm down. Remember not to jump on the couch, sweetie." Cinder instructed. Ruby almost ended up falling the last time she jumped on the couch with excitement, nearly landing her head straight on the coffee table in front of her. Thankfully her older sister was there to save her.

 _*Ring-Ring*_

 _*Ring-Ring*_

"We'll go in a little bit sweetie, just let me get this first." Cinder said as she walked over to the phone by the fridge. "Hello?"

"It's me." The voice stated firmly. Cinder's face lost all emotion but shock at the sound of the familiar voice. The look on her face didn't sneak passed the two girls who looked at her expression with curiosity. From a vibrant smile, the mother suddenly turned to shock and disbelief. They could only look at each other in wonder of the mysterious phone call. Noticing the looks on their face, Cinder quickly turned away as the conversation continued.

"How did you get this number?" She whispered.

"Details aren't important." They replied. "Meet under the bridge, Southern edge of town. In one hour, come alone."

"W-Wait-!"

 _*click*_

Cinder could only stare at the phone as static played over the earpiece.

She couldn't believe it. She just could not believe it. Sure, she hasn't reported in for several years in person, and her usual progress reports had started to slow with each passing month, but this was insane. The only thing that scared her more than how they got the number of this room was how they even knew she was there. Roman couldn't have told them, he wasn't entirely in the loop of things like Cinder was. Even if he would have, he wouldn't have told some random stranger he never met about Cinder's whereabouts.

If there was any other thing that terrified the mother more than that, it was knowing how vulnerable this made her and her little girl. This phone call alone proved they had a method of reaching her, had a method of finding out where she was after all this time. So no matter what she did, or where she would go, they could track her again, find out where she went.

Ignoring the phone call was out of the question. The only problem that did present was what to do with the plans today.

"Umm... Sweetie? About the park today..." Cinder rubbed her left shoulder soothingly.

"Yeah...?" Ruby replied with a small frown. Any time her mother began talking to her in that sort of tone with the expression on her face, it always meant something bad. In this case, chances were the trip to the park was suddenly cancelled.

"W-Well..." She nibble on her thumbnail trying to think. It was only too perfect one of the few days Cinder could begin taking off to spend with Ruby that she would get a phone call like this. She also didn't want to make a habit of disappointing Ruby since this would've been around the fourth time something like this would happen. "You see um...Ah! I just realized I forgot something at work yesterday, so I need to head to work for a bit to pick it up."

Ruby knew what that meant.

"Aww. So I guess that means-"

"Ah tut tut," Cinder quickly interrupted, "you can still go to the park with your big sis, ok?" Neo easily understood the mental signal she was sending her. While she didn't know exactly why she was leaving all of a sudden, she knew something about the phone call was too important to ignore. "I'll stop by after work and meet you there around Noon, ok?" She promised as he picked up a red purse she had on the counter.

"You promise?"

"I promise." She nodded. Ruby watched as Cinder dug through her purse for a moment before handing Neo a handful of lien.

"Here's some money in case you two want to get some snacks. Again, I'll stop by the park around Noon unless you guys decide to come home early, ok?"

"M'kay!" Ruby nodded with a smile.

"That's my girl." Cinder smiled as she gave her another warm hug. "Neo, you're in charge. Be sure to listen to anything she says- er... writes, Ruby."

"I will! Love you mommy!" Ruby cheered as she and Neo waved goodbye. Thankfully Ruby's reading comprehension improved a little over the last year and a half. Granted, there was still plenty of work to be done, but even if she couldn't understand really complicated words, Neo's pictures in her sketch book simplified them.

"Love you girls too." Cinder replied back as she closed the door. Once it was closed, Cinder sighed to herself as she leaned against the door in thought.

She didn't know what to feel at this moment. Every fiber of her being was telling her this had to involve Ruby somehow, but she couldn't figure out what. Did she find out about Ruby? Was she angered about Cinder trying to keep her a secret? Did she want Cinder to... get "rid" of Ruby so she wasn't a threat? It sickened her to think it, but she wouldn't put it passed her. Besides, up to this point Cinder kept her existence a secret from her, so she could see it as some form of betrayal on her part. For all Cinder knew herself, maybe this was some form of betrayal Cinder didn't think of, just proving how much of a distraction Ruby had become due to her emotions towards her.

So would she be willing to part with Ruby if she was forced to? If she thought Ruby was a threat, was she going to make Cinder silence Ruby forever? More importantly, she was worried if she would even be able to bring herself to if she found it necessary...

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...

 _ **A/N: Hope you all enjoyed today's episode ^^. Like I said, second half is already done but will be posted tomorrow or so- which I know people will enjoy because it cameos a certain blonde girl people have been dying to see...*hint* *hint***_

 _ **Also we'll be having another Q'n'A panel soon guys :D! Staring everyone's favorite little kitten, Blake ^^! So be sure to send those questions with your review :P!**_


	15. Trip to the Park!

**_A/N: Hey guys, it's your favorite author here :P! Let's all play a fun little game, guaranteed to be fun for the whole family! It's called "oh-dear-god-I-messed-up-this-fanfic-to-the-point-where-I-might-have-to-cancel-this-whole-thing". It's a fairly easy game, it's about "oh dear god I messed up this fanfic to the point where I might have to cancel this whole thing"...ehhh i suck at names X/._**

 ** _Let me start over by getting to the point. You know the one or two of you who like this fic...(checks over statistics) O_O...ok wow, a lot of people like this fic...huh...well this is awkward now, but I'll just get to the point. You know how it all started with Cinder already having her fire power and whatnot? I maaaaaaaaaaay have made a tincy little mistake Xo_**

 ** _See apparently, which I didn't know, Cinder only GOT that power from the fall maiden, which immediately puts a damper on things here. See, I thought she already had power over fire and all, and killing the maiden only made her powers stronger, but apparently she only got power over fire FROM killing (or at least partial killing) the fall maiden- I was under the impression her semblance was to thank for that, but apparently her semblance is glass, which makes sense given the story she's from._**

 ** _Long story short, from the getgo, I've been horribly discontinuity-ing X/... But fear not! I already have a solution to explain all that! See the reason why she has fire power now is because...A WIZARD DID IT!_**

 ** _Audience: Booooooooooooooooo!_**

 ** _Alright alright, so I don't have a legit reason X/ Huff, so at this time, i'm not 100% sure where to go here. I could just wing it and pretend she already had those powers and killing the maiden made her stronger, or maybe someone has an idea on where to go from here. I'm up for any feedback and assistance I can get._**

 ** _So with all that said, let's move on with the fic! Hope you all enjoy and I apologize for the large Author's note this time around..._**

 ** _PS: Oh, and one other thing- you guys might've noticed some typos and whatnot every other chapters every now and then. Now I'm not talking about like misspelling Faunus as "Faunas", though I do apologize for those, or whatever, I'm talking about like lots of them over and over again in the same chapter, or using the wrong word here and there like a word coming out as "their" as "there"._**

 ** _For those chapters, I apologize. Half the time I'm writing here and everything, I'm using a computer at school. On the helpful side, it has a nice auto-correct thing that automatically spells the word correctly if I use it wrong. The only issue is: sometimes it uses the wrong word, and because it automatically corrects it, there isn't some red line highlighting under it showing I spelled it wrong._**

 ** _I apologize for those times and promise to keep an eye out for them in future fics correcting what I can._**

 ** _So with enough distractions out of the way, please enjoy!_**

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...

"Wooow..." Ruby oohed at the sight. Neo couldn't help but giggle as she held Ruby's hand. Despite the fact they always came to the same Park over and over again, rarely to any other park throughout the city since this one was closest to their home by a few blocks, Ruby was always fascinated by the sight of this fun-looking place. Then again, maybe anything would look interesting when you spent the first five years of your whole life isolated to one or two buildings.

The park was rather impressive thanks to it's large size. Like most family parks, he floor coating the entirety of this park was covered in wood chips, thick but safe ones so nobody had to worry about getting splinters or anything. The park itself must've stretched to nearly all the roads surrounding it on all four sides. It was numerous in it's fun activities from several different slides, all nearly twice the size of the next one with the tallest stretching twenty feet from the ground up, a small little area with rotating blocks on the walls to play tic-tac-toe or connect four, at least two different swing sets, one with normal looking swings including ones meant for babies, and the other one having a large array of different colored swings ranging from decorative swings to look like large birds, ones with two seaters, and ones meant to be stood on while swinging.

Those were obviously for the bigger kids of course.

Along the playground equipment were several different speakers you could speak into and listen to back and forth between whoever you were talking to for the kids to play. There were numerous times Ruby would always use this to play with Blake as they pretended this was playground was a grand castle they were exploring, giggling back and forth to each other as they traversed the dangerous, deadly, trap-filled castle as they went off to save the Princess of Cakes and Cookies, and defeat the evil one-million-headed Grimm Dragon that always kidnapped her! Sometimes they would just use their imagination as the dragon, other times Neo would join in with them and pretend to be the big bad dragon. It was a bit hard to play pretend with a girl who never talked, but over time they got used to it and learned what she was trying to say through her gestures.

Another fun part of the park was the large sandbox area that must've made up at least a fifth of the park itself. To a good 60x60 feet, an entire area was devoted to everything sandbox related, having it's own shovels and buckets the kids could use as well as some scrapers the kids could use like cranes to dig and pull full loads of the sand at once. This was among more of the things Neo herself enjoyed doing with Ruby, always being able to show off her artistic talent as she made grand castles with the five-year-old out of mere sand and imagination! Other times they would make animals like dogs of cats, or anything Neo could recognize Ruby making since most of the time they just appear as giant piles of sand with twigs sticking out.

All in all, this was one of the best parks around town, and the most popular of course. And the fact it was only a few blocks away from her home, which Ruby could recognize thanks to her mother teaching her to look for the tallest building around, made it an ideal place to come to without having to worry about things.

"Come on sissy, let's play!" Ruby pleaded as she began pulling Neo's hand. The twin-colored girl just smiled to herself as she let Ruby drag her along with whatever she had in mind.

The next forty minutes were filled with nothing but laughter and fun for the little girl, and ended for exhaustion for the older sibling. The first thing they played was hide 'n seek, one of Ruby's favorite games, as well as one of the games Ruby found herself best at. While it would've been simple and easy to make an illusion, given Neo's semblance, she wanted to be nothing but fair to the young girl, finding a good hiding spot within a spacious traveling tube that took Ruby several minutes to find her in. While that alone might've seemed like a good while, that was much easier than when it came to finding Ruby.

The ten minutes following her hiding spot were filled with nothing but confusion and a growing worry as Neo struggled to find Ruby. She almost started to panic thinking something either happened to her or she ended up wandering off into the city on her own again. Thankfully though after a good ten minutes of searching and running back and forth, Ruby gave away her hiding spot as she called her sister over. Much to Neo's surprise, Ruby somehow managed to get herself atop a large tree located at the edge of the park. It was amazing at how she managed to climb it without any branches to climb her way up with, but it was mostly relief for Neo when she found Ruby safe and sound.

At least until it came to getting her. Sadly for Ruby, the one issue she had was getting back down, henceforth why she didn't leave her hiding spot after a few minutes. Getting up the tree was easy for her, but there was no way she was going to get down safely without Neo's help. If she tried to slide her way down she would possibly cut her hands or knees on the bark of the rough tree. Jumping from the tree was also out of the question as the spot was at least thirteen feet from the ground from where she was. Luckily with her sister finding her, she easily caught her when she signaled for Ruby to jump down.

Following the long game of hide 'n seek, they moved on to a fun game of racing through the playground itself. Starting from the entrance to the large playground equipment, Ruby raced her way through the large pieces of equipment as her sister struggled to keep up with her. It wasn't too surprising anyway. Ruby was the self-proclaimed Princess of the Jungle Gym! All who challenged her greatness and incredible Princess powers would toil in their failure if they ever tried to surpass her! She wouldn't show any racing mercy to any of her fellow subjects, not even if they bribed her with cookies! Unless it was two, but that was just being unfair.

Neo didn't have the heart to tell Ruby she was letting her win either, seeing how excited the young girl got every time she "won".

The last thing they played together was a simple game of swings with Ruby swinging and Neo pushing her back and forth gently. That alone took up about the last fifteen minutes of their time before Neo retired. For the full fifteen minutes, she just stood there pushing her back and forth while being careful not to push her too hard. Aside from not wanting to accidentally push her off the swing, she had to make sure Ruby didn't end up going too high as she kicked her legs in unison. Every push brought her higher and higher until she was swinging herself up to Neo's head in height. That was about where Neo wanted her to be, not going too high in case Ruby did accidentally fall off.

By the end of it all, Neo found herself sitting on a Park bench collapsed from exhaustion. It was moments like this where she wondered how on Remnant Ruby had this much energy to spare. It took several minutes to convince her she was too exhausted to keep playing with her, being content with just watching her for the rest of the time.

Speaking of which, Neo found it a little curious she had yet to be contacted by Cinder. She knew she wasn't going to work to pick up something, but whatever kept her from enjoying the day with them was sure taking awhile. She would've at least sent some text to her by now, seeing how it was nearly 11:30 after checking her scroll. There weren't any voice mails or texts anywhere in her scroll, and she didn't send her any updates on what she was doing. Either something happened to her, or something was keeping her too distracted from replying back to her.

It was only then did she notice Ruby suddenly tugging at her pants while looking up at her. "Hey sis? I'm getting hungry. Can we have a snack now?" Neo happily replied with a smile as she looked around the park for a moment. If they were going to have a snack, they should at least eat close to the park in case Cinder ever showed up. It took just a few seconds before Neo saw the bakery across the street, drawing quickly in her journal before revealing it to the little girl.

-WANT SOME COOKIES?-

As predicted, Ruby nodded her head with excitement as her eyes sparkled.

"Yeah! Cookies!" She cheered. With a smiling nod, Neo patted her head as she told her to wait at the park, walking quickly across the street as she entered the bakery.

Normally, leaving Ruby alone wouldn't have been wise after what happened the last time Roman left her for an hour. Fortunately, Ruby had learned from that little experience over time about waiting in a spot for people, and there was no need to worry about Ruby disappearing this time around either.

No one would try to abduct a girl in the middle of the day on a weekend, especially if there were several adults in the area watching their own kids. So there was no worry of someone actually trying to kidnap her around here. Secondly, there was too much fun to be had in the park, so Ruby had plenty of things to occupy her time with while waiting for Neo to return with a batch of delicious freshly made cookies. On top of that, they needed some indication that they were present at the park in case Cinder ever showed up. In case she either forgot her phone or had some different reason for not responding to her scroll, Neo needed some way to inform Cinder they were around, so leaving Ruby for a few minutes seemed like the best option.

Otherwise, they would have to put the whole snack break thing on hold until Cinder arrived, and there was no telling when that would happen. It could've been in mere seconds to possibly another hour or two, or maybe even all day! And she didn't want Ruby to suffer from hunger and waiting all day long, she was too sweet of an older sister to let that happen.

Thus little Ruby found herself hanging around the park for the next several minutes, making sure to check at the bakery every couple of moments to see her sister standing in line through the clear windows. As if sensing her presence, Neo looked back from time to time to wave back at her with a smile, checking in on her to make sure things were fine.

It was about three minutes after Neo left did Ruby come up with the greatest of plans ever! Finding Buried Treasure! Sure, the sandbox wasn't like the sand at the beaches, something she hasn't seen for herself yet, but sand was sand, and if there was one thing she learned from her stories, it's that pirates always buried their treasures in the sand instead of shopping with it! And once Ruby discovered it and brought back millions and lots of pieces of gold, her mother was going to be so proud of her!

Grabbing a nearby green plastic shovel, the young treasure hunter got to work immediately as she dug right in the middle of the sandbox. Humming to herself to pass the time, she remained vigilant in her quest for the gold! "Hmhmhmhmhmmm, hmm hmm, hmm hmmmmm..." She hummed. Who knows what kind of valuable gold she would find?! Maybe giant bars of pure gold, or maybe even a diamond necklace! Her mother always fawned at how pretty they always looked, so if Ruby could discover any special secret treasure, her mommy would love her forev-!

 _*clank*_

"Huh?" Ruby blinked with confusion as her shovel suddenly struck something. "I thought the sandbox would be deeper..." She commented to herself as she pulled aside the shovel. Scraping her fingers into the struck spot, she was surprised as ever when she came across a large blue toy truck, now broken in half with cracks spread across the damaged area. There were scrapes, dents, parks of the wheels breaking apart just from lifting it out of the sand. "What kind of buried treasure is this?"

"Hey!" A voice suddenly yelled out. Ruby jumped startled as a pair of hands snatched the toy truck out of her palms. Looking ahead of her she saw at least two other boys looking at the truck angrily, one with spiky orange hair and black shorts with a green shirt. The other one was slightly shorter than him but still a head taller than Ruby herself. He was wearing beige pants with a striped red and blue shirt. Both boys were obviously a few years older than Ruby herself, the older one being around 8 years old and the other one probably around 7. However old they were, all that mattered to Ruby was how they were bigger than her, and definitely scarier.

"Aww man! She broke our truck!" The 7-year-old grumbled disappointingly.

"Dad's gonna kill me when he finds out, I just got this two days ago!" The older one complained. "You wrecked my toy you stupid baby!" Ruby could only frown worriedly as she rubbed her hands.

"I-I'm sorry, I was just d-digging for-" She tried to apologize.

"I was ju'th digging." The older boy mocked again. "My dad spent twenty lien on this thing! I begged him for weeks for it for my birthday and now it's broken!" He grumbled.

"I-I'm sorry. M-Maybe I can fix it or-" Ruby said as she tried putting two of the pieces together.

 _*SNAP*_

"Oopsie." She meeped, accidentally snapping a large wheel from the truck as she tried to fix it, ruining it further.

"Nooo! Gah, now it's even more broken!" The kid growled again. "You dumb brat!"

"Ah-!" Ruby cried out as the kid pushed her into the sand. "Ehehhh hehhhhhhh..." The sad little girl began to cry as she rubbed her scraped right elbow. It wasn't exactly bleeding, but the scape alone was enough to hurt her.

"Oh look, now the baby's gonna cry!" The other boy taunted as he began kicking sand at her. It wasn't directly at her face, but the act of it alone and the pain she was already feeling more than terrified her. She was being attacked and her big sister was unaware of it and she had no idea where mommy was! All she could do was wait until they went away and keep her eyes close to avoid the sand getting in them.

"Maybe you shouldn't break things in the first place you dumb baby!" The older kid grumbled again as he kicked sand at her from behind.

"I-I'm sorryyyyyyy..." Ruby cried out as they continued kicking sand.

"If you were sorry you wouldn't have done it in the first place you-!"

 _*BAM!*_

"Owww!" The sound of the older kid suddenly yelping caught Ruby's attention as she opened her eyes again. Surprisingly, her savior wasn't in the form of her mother or that of her older sister. It wasn't anyone she recognized! Then again, she was only seeing this stranger from the back of her head, but even that was enough for her to tell she was a girl.

She was some blonde-haired girl with two red ponytails on the side of her head. She wore a simple yellow Tank Top for a shirt and dark black shorts that only went down to her knees. Along with her autumn-colored outfit, she wore orange socks along with a pair of brown leather shoes. She was around the same size of the other boys, so Ruby figured she must be at least 7 or 8 like them.

Whoever this girl was, she was Ruby's savior! She actually wondered if she was a superhero, seeing all the signs there. Appearing when their's a crisis, saving someone in need, arriving in the nick of time, and standing in such a cool way that made her look both intimidating and heroic all at the same time! Maybe she even had a superhero name like the Yellow Devil, or the Golden Victory Girl! Or at least something that sounded cool and would fit her appearance. Nobody ever wants to just be called "Hero A" or "Hero B"... unless they were really bad at coming up with names.

"What was that for you cree-" The younger boy began before Yang pulled him by the collar of his shirt.

"You think it's fun pushing around little girls and making them cry!?" The girl grumbled, actually scaring the other boy himself.

"She started it, stupid!" The other boy grumbled back, rubbing his own scraped elbow as he stood up. "She broke my toy!"

"Well did she apologize for it?" The blonde asked, shooting him an unamused look. He could practically feel her sensing if he was going to lie or not.

"W-Well, yeah b-but-!"

"And did she do it on purpose?" The blonde continued.

"I-It doesn't matter! She broke my toy- Ah!"

"Wah-!" The older boy yelped as the blonde suddenly shoved the kid she was holding right on top of him. "Ow!"

"Well I say it does matter!" She exclaimed as she started cracking her knuckles. It was official. This girl was terrifying for the two boys. "Now beat it before I break your faces!" She threatened.

"Grrrr I'm telling my mom!" The older kid yelled as he and the other kid ran away.

"Hmph!" The girl humphed to herself proudly as she set her fists at her side. It was enjoyable always watching the wrongdoers and bullies of the world run away with their tails between their legs.

Figuratively speaking, not counting Faunas.

After watching for another few seconds before she looked back at the sniffling girl behind her. Her demeanor changed completely from vengeful red-head to a calm and caring tone as she kneeled down. "Are you alright?" She asked.

"Sniff...Eh heh..." Ruby sniffled as she rubbed her elbows. She winced a bit as the girl suddenly grabbed it, not harshly or anything, just firm enough to get a good grip. "Ehehhhhh..." Ruby whined again as she sniffled.

"It's okay, it's okay," She assured, "I'm just looking at it, honest." It still stung a bit as she moved her arm up and down, turning it a little to look closer at it, but she gave Ruby a calm smile as she nodded. "Mh hm, you'll be A-Okay!"

"Hnn.. R-Really?" Ruby sniffled as she rubbed her runny nose. She looked nervous as she slowly grabbed the other girl's hand, helping Ruby to her feet.

"Yup! You'll heal in no time." She smiled. "That was brave of you to stand up to those guys, you know." That single line of dialogue brought no end of confusion to the young girl.

"B-Brave?"She repeated doubtful. "I-I wasn't brace. They pushed me and kicked sand at me till I c-cried." She sniffed.

"That's being strong, not brave." The girl corrected as she held Ruby's hand, walking over to the blue bench. "You could've ran away or lied or something, but you stood your ground and were honest about it! That's what a true Hero and huntsman would do!"

"Huntsman...?" The word sounded weird as it rang through Ruby's head.

"Yeah, like my dad or my uncle! They beat up bad guys and monsters, running around and save the world!" She spoke with glee as she pounded her fists together. "Some day, I'm gonna be just like my dad and take down every bad Grimm in the world with one punch!"

"T-That sounds cool." Ruby commented as she smiled a bit, tears drying little by little.

"Yup! By the way, I'm Yang! What's your name?"

"R...Ruby..." She squeaked. For some reason a mixed look of surprise and confusion crossed Yang's face when she said this.

"Ruby...? Huh, that's neat." She replied as she hopped up on the bench.

"Neat?" Ruby repeated as she hopped on too.

"Yeah, bit of a coincidence really. I had a little sister back when I was really young, her name was Ruby too."

"Ooh... What happened to her?" She almost regretted asking as Yang grew a small frown, trying her best to smile even with the depressed look in her eyes.

"Eh... She and my mom died a long time ago when I was still a baby. I think dad said I was three or just a week or two away when they did. I don't even remember what they looked like."

"Oh..." Ruby was beginning to feel really bad. Not just for how sad the story was, but how she was starting to make her own savior depressed after just saving her. It wasn't exactly the best way to pay someone back. "I'm sorry. I-I didn't mean to-"

"Ah, don't worry about it, it was a long time ago." Yang shrugged. After a few moments of thought though, she looked back to the younger girl. "What about you? Do you have a family?"

"Oh, yup!" Ruby chirped. "I have a mommy and a bigger sister who's really funny."

"Oh... I see..." Yang knew it was too good to be true. If this girl who happened to be named Ruby happened to have a mom too, then there was no way the two could be related. She wasn't even sure why she thought that either. There was just something about the look in her eyes that looked familiar.

"Whoa-!" Ruby nearly yelped as she was picked up. Much to her surprise, there stood her bigger sister with a relieved smile on her face, hugging her while holding a bag of cookies at the scene.

She saw most of the scene that played before them, from the moment Ruby got pushed over and the kids were kicking sand at them. Unfortunately for her she was in the middle of paying for the stupid snacks while the stupid shopkeeper was taking forever to make the payment go through! At least luckily for the sake of the two boys, that blonde girl got to them first before she did.

"Sissy!" Ruby squealed happily as she hugged her tightly.

"Yaaaang!" A father's voice suddenly called out. "It's time to go!" Smiling, Yang hopped off the bench as she waved to Ruby and her older sister.

"Nice meeting ya, Ruby!" Yang waved as she ran back to her father.

"Bye bye, Yang! Thanks for saving me!" She cheered again. Smiling at her, Neo left the park with her sister in arms. Even though Yang saved her, she would still need to check her scrape once they got home.

At the same time, Yang just smiled as she looked up to her father who could only look back at her with a sly grin.

"So, seems like someone got a little rough today, again." He commented raising his brow.

"Yeah, I know dad, don't start fights, only finish them unless they're picking on someone else." Yang stated rolling her eyes playfully. With a grin, her dad just rubbed her head proudly.

"That's my girl. Now c'mon, let's head home." He said, taking the young girl's hand as they walked down the sidewalk. "So, seems you made a friend back there?"

"Yeah, she was nice. She ended up breaking some jerk's toy and they were trying to beat her up even though she was sorry." She explained.

"Yeah? Sounds right. Honestly I think those two intended for this to happen, I saw them bury the truck in the sand to begin with. Just didn't think they were so conniving like that."

"I wouldn't care if they did it intentionally or not. Nobody should pick on other people like that, especially little girls!" Yang pumped raising her fist.

"That's right, Yang." Her father nodded. "You shouldn't punch your way through every fight, but you definitely shouldn't let bullies be bullies to... Say, who was that girl anyway?"

"Oh, she was nice dad. She was just waiting around for her sister I think, don't know what her sis was doing in the meantime."

"Really? What was her name?"

"Ruby!"

"Oh, Ruby-!" The two of them came to a sudden stop as her father froze. Yang looked back to him with curiosity as he turned his head back. Wherever the girl was she and the older supposed sibling was nowhere to be seen.

There's no way. It couldn't be. He never believed it when he discovered his wife was found dead, and he was in utter disbelief when he was told his daughter was missing as well. Everyone always told him she was just devoured by the Grimm in one gulp given her small size, but something kept nagging at him telling him she was alive!

Or was this just hopeful thinking again?

He remembered the very night he lost Summer and Ruby. It broke him. Tore him up. He remembered the night Qrow told him how he ran out of the house in the middle of the storm that night, unable to believe anything his friend had told him. He searched for hours on end, nearly four to five hours, just wanting some sign that either of them were still alive. By the time he gave up, he only then realized he forgot about Yang, the only family he did have left. Thankfully Qrow was watching over her during the night until he returned. That and the helpful punch to his face was all he needed to remind himself that he still had one family left, not to mention friends along the way.

That was when he promised to himself that he wouldn't obsess over this. He could be as sad and depressed as he wanted to, but he wouldn't let his grief affect the rest of his life. He still had family, one he cherished deeply. All he could do at that time was struggle to push on.

At least it didn't mean he had to give up hope.

"Dad?" Yang called out, snapping him out of his thoughts. "Are you okay?"

"Oh... yeah sweetheart, I'm fine. Now come on, we're having steak tonight! Whoever loses arm wrestling tonight does dishes!"

"Yeah!"

...

...

Silence.

Just empty air and silence. The only thing that Cinder could hear from under the bridge was the beat of her own heart, clutching herself to ease the tension. That person knew. They knew of Ruby's existence somehow despite all attempt to conceal it. Well, maybe not conceal it. That would be the first sign of betrayal. But what was she supposed to think? Not only did Cinder keep Ruby's person a secret, she kept it hidden for all this time! So was she angry? Was she just curious? It was hard to say.

Only when there was a brief change in the wind did Cinder finally notice their presence.

"I'm glad you decided to show up." The figure stated as they stepped out of the shadows. Cinder could already tell who it was without even needing to see.

"Hazel." She greeted looking back. He was always the intimidating one of the crowd. Always being quiet, only speaking when spoken to. Yet his brute strength and size was all that was needed to make anyone uncomfortable.

"Cinder," he greeted back with a nod as he crossed his arms, "I'm sure you know why I'm here." Cinder struggled to maintain her composure as her heart sped up.

"Is it because of her?" Cinder guessed. "The girl?"

"Salem knows of her existence, Cinder." Hazel said in a calm tone.

"Mind if I ask how?"

"It was thanks to a little news broadcast over a year ago." Cinder tensed slightly. Out of all the things to expect, she wouldn't expect Salem or any of the others to just be tuning in to the news for that day or the several following days. Of course something involving the direct family of the Schnee, in this case Cinder "finding" the lost runaway Weiss, would be broadcasted across nearly the whole continent. That just showed how distracting Ruby became for her. "We were hoping you were actually going to fill us in on the girl eventually, but she's grown tired of waiting."

"Look, if you want to get rid of her, at least let me do it." She said in a somewhat-pleading tone. If worse came to worse, she would have to get rid of Ruby, but she would be damned if she killed her. At the very least, she would leave her somewhere with a loving family. Maybe on a different continent of Remnant, somewhere she wouldn't be able to find Cinder again and where Cinder herself wouldn't be able to find her so easily.

"That would actually go against what Salem wants." Hazel's statement caught Cinder by surprise. And slight worry. "She wants to meet her face to face."

"Meet her? You mean she wants Ruby to meet Salem?" That actually sounded worse than if she wanted Cinder to get rid of Ruby. Even if Cinder would be forced to kill Ruby, it would be absolutely painless. If Salem wanted to kill the girl though, there would be no telling what sort of horror she would inflict upon the small child. "Why?"

"Honestly? I don't know. But you know well as I do that it's unwise to question Salem." He reminded as he walked before her. "I don't think I've ever recalled you questioning anything she's said. Are you growing... soft?"

Cinder turned her head with a small glare. "I'm not getting soft, Hazel." She said firmly. "I have my job to do, and you have yours. I'm gathering currency for our goals, and nothing more. Anything related to Ruby is just a matter of a promise I made to someone."

"So Ruby's her name?" Hazel questioned as he rubbed his chin. Only then did Cinder realize her mistake of giving him a name. Ruby truly had made her soft, this just confirmed it. "I don't know what happened in the past, Cinder, but if it helps at all I'm sure she doesn't wish to harm the child. But if you disobey her, I don't know what she'll do."

The air was silent once more. No matter what grievances Cinder had, Hazel was right. To disobey Salem would be a death wish to not only herself, but Ruby as well. If she tried to run, Salem would find her. She would never fight back against Salem even if she could miraculously pull it off. She owed her too much, raising Cinder to what she was as much as Cinder was raising Ruby.

Whatever the case was, Cinder needed to obey. She had no choice whichever way she looked at it. This wasn't a request by Salem, this was a command. "Just give me some time to plan the trip." She requested. They would most likely fly to their destination, but even that would take awhile. Not to mention how long they would possibly be staying at Salem's domain.

"You'll have plenty of time, Cinder." Hazel replied as he walked away. "It was her personal request that you bring the child by the time she reaches her next birthday."

"Birthday?" That was among the last of the requests she expected to hear at this point. "Why her birthday?"

"I don't know, she didn't say." He commented scratching his head casually. "When is it anyway?"

"...In a few weeks, 18 days to be exact. It's not her actual birthday either, it's just... when I found her." Cinder added.

"I'll be sure to let Salem know then when to expect her." As he neared the opening of the bridge, he turned back to look at the adoptive mother. "And between the two of us, I really hope you show up. Otherwise he plans on sending him to meet with her."

Despite what it sounded like, those words actually did comfort Cinder somewhat. He wasn't actually threatening her, he was actually showing concern. No matter how intimidating he looked on the outside, he was usually the most gentle of the accomplices unless Salem wished for it otherwise. It was nice to see him being a little bit comforting even with the stress pushed upon her.

"Alright... Thank you." Whether he heard her reply or not was unknown, as by the time she looked back he was already gone.

So now she had THIS pushed against her. She needed to find an excuse for Ruby to meet Salem. No, scratch that. She needed to give Ruby a reason for wanting to meet Salem. The woman would terrify her upon first glance, she was certain of that. And she needed to think of some reason Ruby just had to meet her out of nowhere.

Her birthday was a good enough excuse, that was for sure. But why the long wait? It would be something she would have to ponder over the next several weeks, as the sudden vibration of her scroll going off caught her attention. Flipping through the screen, she searched a bit until she saw the text from Neo's scroll.

BACK HOME EARLY. RUBY GOT OUCHIE AT PARK. ALREADY DEALT WITH TROUBLEMAKERS. HAVING ICE CREAM NOW!

The mother smirked a bit as she closed her scroll. She would protect Ruby, regardless of what Salem wanted. She wouldn't disobey her, but as long as she was by her side she would make sure she was kept somewhat safe. That was the job of any good mother.

Mother.

Mother...

...Mother...

It was then that an idea finally struck Cinder's mind as she spoke out loud.

"Maybe it's time to finally meet Grandma..."

...

...

...

 _ **A/N: Hooftah, another lengthy chapter (least was before I cut it in half)! Once again I apologize for the lack of posts (well at least daily like I promised)- I was going to post something monday (until this ended up being incredibly longer than intended :/), but I cut the tip of my middle finger yesterday during work, and I mean right on the little button-clicker area so anytime I touched the keyboard made the finger hurt T_T. Thankfully, day after, it's a little better. Still sore here and there, but getting better even though it's still a bit slower typing like this.**_

 _ **I also apologize again for having this so lengthy in terms of details and such. But seeing how over a year had past in-Rwby time here, I had to explain everything that happened and all the little quirks here and there. Hope the chapter was still enjoyable all the same :P.**_

 _ **Also would like to thank THB4 for the numerous messages and assistance he/she (I ain't judging but me and guessing someone gender = never works XP) sent back and forth, she's helping me with ideas for some future holiday specials here :P speaking of which, I want your guys' opinion on what you want for the first bonus episode coming up in a few chapters: Do you guys want a Christmas Special, or a Halloween Special :P? Both would involve Ruby and Blake, as well as several "other" characters of interest, and they would be a couple chapters long each :P. Like my bonus episodes, they'll be non-canon too to avoid any conflicting issues between plot and whatnot.**_

 _ **Either way, hope you all enjoyed today's chapter and I apologize again for it's length. I'm 95% sure the next one will be way shorter unless you guys would prefer otherwise :P. With that said, leave a like a fave and everything.**_

 _ **And leave questions for the next Q 'n A panel AFTER you review: THE NEXT PANEL STARS BLAKE :D!**_


	16. Little Red Riding Grimm

**_Edit: Forgot to mention this to anyone interested. If you want a more visual idea of what the wolf pup looks like, go on google and type in Wolf Grimm Gif Rwby, should be the very first one you come across. Warning- may cause diabetes from sweetness._**

 ** _A/N: Oohla mochachos! Monokub here, and here to bring you another fun-kawaii-adorbs episode ^^!_**

 ** _Before we begin, I'd like to thank the masses out there for the dilemma I had last chapter. I was just afraid that little continuity thing was going to ruin the whole fanfic cause some crucial parts of this story later involved the maiden being alive later. Naturally I can't go into detail with that, for spoiler reasons, but I will state how pleased I am with the incredible amount of feedback and help I got from people regarding the whole "Fire power Cinder" issue._**

 ** _Apparently, the consensus has spoken, and the people are in agreement: A WIZARD DID IT!_**

 ** _Audience #1: Boooo no wayyy!_**

 ** _Audience #2: Youuu suck!_**

 ** _Audience #3: Get a real job!_**

 ** _SHADDUP MOM!... Anyway, in all seriousness, majority of the people are in agreement along the lines of two different things- either Cinder did indeed have her fire power, or at least some sort of heat/flame-based power before killing the maiden, or her clothes were lined with dust giving her powers or amplifying her fire powers. Either way, this means my whole "cinder having fire power from the start" thing is still eligible, and as such, I have no reason to not continue this fanfic...and since that line is probably confusing and I suck at double-negatives, long story short: This fanfic is still on ^^!_**

 ** _So thank you guys for all your help and assistance. We have nothing to fear short of me having a fatal heart attack or a stroke ^^...god I can already feel myself jinxing it..._**

 ** _Just an FYI before we begin (and don't worry, this'll probably be the last long author note i make until I have something important to announce again)- some bits here and there in today's episode may seem/feel rushed. I apologize for that, cause halfway through is when the whole continuity issue occurred, so I was slightly distracted in some parts more than others. So apologies if those parts seemed rushed or off in some way, hopefully won't happen again... which knowing my stupidity, probably will XP._**

 ** _Oh well... Enjoy Grandma Salem's episode ^^!_**

...

...

...

"Wake up sweetie, we're here." Cinder announced, gently shaking the slumbering six-year-old in her arms, dressed in her normal clothes along with a new red jacket.

"Mmh... hm?" It was hard to tell if Ruby actually woke up or was still in some strange dream.

She was surprised more than ever to see every inch of her surroundings completely changed since she fell asleep. They were in some mysterious looking dark hallway, dimly light with whatever lanterns illuminated the side of the walls. The halls themselves looked almost like ancient ruins, nothing the young birthday girl herself could comprehend at the time. All she knew was that this day just went from weird to weirder to finally weirdest and slightly creepy. What as she to make of this strange place?

It started as soon as yesterday. Along with the traditional birthday celebration they celebrated a day early, the party guests consisting of her mother and sister like usual, sadly no Roman due to being too caught up with work, her mother made a startling announcement that afternoon. Apparently, they were going to meet her Grandma, aka Cinder's mother. That alone caught Ruby by surprise.

She had a grandma?! Why didn't mommy ever tell her about that?! Better yet, what about grandpa? Shouldn't she have that too? Or did he pass away like Ruby's father did after she was born? Eaten by Grimm trying to get medicine for Ruby when she was a baby?

She also wasn't aware of the sleeping medication Cinder put into her breakfast that morning. She couldn't help it. She needed Ruby to not be scared of where they were going as well as keep the location of it a secret for security reasons. She would've gone with a simple blindfold and promise of it being a surprise, but she couldn't even take the chance that she would remember how long it took to get here, or the off chance her blindfold accidentally slipped off or something. She needed to ensure nothing bad happen that could threaten or scare Ruby, or threaten the integrity of this domain.

Whatever the case was, all Ruby knew was that they were in some slightly dark and eerie place. She couldn't even see the end of the hallway it was so dark.

"Momma? Where are we?" Ruby asked curiously as Cinder set her to her feet. Instead of answering, Ruby just watched as Cinder kneeled in front of her, placing her hands on Ruby's shoulders. Like when she was working, she was wearing her elegant red dress. But as opposed to those days when she would always look at her daughter happily, she looked upon her with a slightly pained smile.

"Sweetie, I..." Cinder paused as she tensed a bit. "You know mommy loves you no matter what, right?"

"Of course I do!" Ruby perked up as she hugged her mother around her neck. "I love you too!" It was fortunate she wasn't looking at Cinder's face at that. The fiery witch had to clear her eyes of whatever tears were forming.

She was clueless. Not Ruby, Cinder herself. She had no idea what was going to happen to her beyond this point. If Salem wanted to take Ruby's life, Cinder was unsure if she would intervene or just stand there and watch obediently. She was too loyal to Salem no matter how much she loved Ruby, so she had no idea what she could or couldn't do when the moment came.

She was also clueless on the case before them. She was uninformed about anything Salem wanted, unsure what fate could befall them after this meeting. All she knew was that she wanted this one moment with Ruby in her arms to never end for as long as possible.

"G-Good." Cinder nearly choked on her tears, standing up again as she took Ruby's hand. "J-Just stay by me. And don't be scared, I'll keep you safe."

"Scared?" Ruby tightened her grip as her mother began walking. What did she have to be scared of? Her mommy was here, and there was never anything to be scared of as long as she was around! She was the prettiest, strongest, smartest, and funnest mommy around! Nothing could scare her as long as mommy was arou-

*groooowl*

"Ngh!" Ruby squeaked as she hugged her mother's leg.

There it was. That one sudden sound she recognized all too well. From the TV shows she watched of huntresses hunting bad and evil monsters, as well as those earliest of memories from her childhood. She recognized all too well the sound of those menacing Grimm all too well. Further ahead upon the darkened hall she saw them, two beowolves whose eyes shined red within the darkness. She could tell, she could almost feel their gaze fixated on her alone as they walked forward.

"M-Mommy..." Ruby trembled as she teared up. As scared as she was, the Grimm seemed to pay her no mind. Like her mother promised, the Grimm seemed to avoid her as they walked on by. She wouldn't be able to tell why at the time, but to her belief, her mother made them go away as her hands erupted in flame, seeming to warn them to stay away from her daughter. While that alone would normally warm Ruby's heart and calm her down, it raised more questions than answers. Why didn't her mommy attack them?

Sure, they weren't trying to hurt Ruby, but usually mommy's first instinct was to fight off anything that seemed to threaten her daughter. The Grimm that passed her were lucky enough to be alive at this point, mommy would usually burn them away at this point. And there was no way these Grimm were just nice, Ruby made that mistake once that she wouldn't make again.

"See, sweetie?" Ruby looked up as her mother smiled calmly to her. "Like I promised, you'll be okay, ok?" Ruby sniffled a bit as she nodded.

"Ok." She replied as her mother continued walking them down.

It was becoming increasingly hard to tell where at all they were. The next several minutes were spent just walking within these dark halls one step after the other. Sometimes their footsteps echoed throughout the long space, other times it just went silent for a short while. Then, it would repeat again in an endless loop. Ruby wasn't scared though! Her mommy said not to be scared and that's what she planned on doing! Even if all these Grimm were... terrifying... and she passed them the occasional beowolf one after the other... and her skin grew goosebumps with each passing moment... and the wind grew colder despite the warm jacket her mother made with love... and her eyes twitched with the occasional tear...

It was only during that long walk did Ruby and her mother happen to come across the sight down the right hall, thanks to the noise being caused. Further down the hallway, in a large round and lit room, Ruby saw two strange curious-looking people.

The first one seemed to be some teenager around the age of 17. She never met him before, and chances were she wouldn't want to after this. It was some black-haired spiky headed teen with a scorpion tail. He seemed to be doing everything in his power to land a single blow with either of his wrist blades or his sharp, long, scorpion tail. This teen was definitely a Fauna as far as Ruby knew, as to what he was was unknown to her at the time. But somehow he wasn't even the strangest of the two people.

Saying strange was probably a little harsh on the other guy. He actually seemed pretty normal in comparison. He was a big husky man, that was obvious just by the mere sight of him. But despite his appearance, he seemed relatively peaceful. There was a calming presence coming from him that made Ruby less afraid of him than the scarier looking teen. The part that made him strange though was how he was letting the other kid attack him without telling him to stop. It's not like he was letting him actually hit him either. He just stood there in a calm and composed manner as he used a single arm to block each and every blow! He was definitely along the lines of fearless, but definitely wasn't a match for her mommy!

"You attack to wildly, you leave yourself open and obvious." The large man commented, never losing focus as he continued to block.

"Ah shaddup, I just need one good strike and-" His attention shifted as he noticed Ruby staring at him as she walked away with her mother. "Huh?"

*WHAM!*

"Yeowch!" She heard the cry following the sound of something hard knocking him to the floor.

"Told ya." Was the last thing she heard the other man say before they faded away from view.

Ok who was she kidding? She was terrified! What kind of place was this?! She couldn't even tell that her mother was intentionally going slower than normal. She wanted to make the most of this moment, with her daughter in hand like she used to be. After this moment she wasn't sure what was going to happen. Making the most out of what could be her last day with her sweetheart was the only thing that came to mind.

But like all good things, that came to an end. After another several minutes, they came upon it; the set of large doors that would forever change their fate. It was futile to wonder if Salem was aware of their presence at this point. Not five seconds after they arrived at the doors did it suddenly begin to creak open. It was just like the entrance to a Ball, the room going silent as all sound escaped through the revealing doors. The only differences was how instead of a ball, these were leading into their one an final Destination.

A meeting room. A simple, somewhat average looking meeting room. Minus the choice of decor and scenery, it was about what you could expect from a room such as this. At the center of the room was a large table, capable of seating up to a near dozen people with the numerous chairs it provided. But it was the very edge of the room, where one single chair stood out, did Ruby see her "Grandmother", situated before a cup of warm tea.

It was only when she laid eyes upon her was Ruby truly terrified. From her ghost white long hair, menacing red eyes, red-veined skin, everything about her presence terrified her. She looked like every single villain from every story her mommy ever read to ever! But that couldn't be right, she was her mommy's mommy! Did that mean her mother was evil too? No, it couldn't be! One of the biggest things her mommy always told her to remember was never judge a book by it's cover! ...So did that mean her eyes were the inside of a cover?

It was only then did the woman smile lightly to the young girl, beckoning to her. "Come to me, my child." She directed. Ruby was naturally hesitant, shaking slightly as she looked up at her mother. Even with all that happened, her mother did her best to put on a brave face, patting her had soothingly.

"It's alright sweetie, I'll be right here." She said. With a silent gulp to herself, Ruby released her grip from her mother's legs, nervously walking inside of the room. That was her first and last mistake. Immediately upon entering the room, the doors behind her slammed shut twice as quickly as it opened. While Cinder was expecting such a case, it still tore her up. This was it now. She was separated from Ruby. She had no idea what was going to happen to her little angel, or if she would see her again.

All she could do was squeeze her fist as she prayed.

...

All the same, Ruby jumped at the sound of the doors slamming shut. Ok, she had to remain calm. This was her grandmother she was visiting after all. And no matter how cryptic, scary, and horrifying she was, she had to trust her.

Whether she liked it or not.

"Come here, Ruby." The woman called over again. Ruby could only rub her hands with unease as she slowly walked over to the mysterious stranger. She was sorta expecting someone to look like an older version of her own mother, not some lady who looked like she was in her 500's if the pitch white hair was any indication. Even the dress the woman was wearing was a bit eerie. Who the heck was she? "Come now." She said again, offering a hand as she neared her.

"H-Hi..." Ruby greeted hesitantly as she took the woman's hand. With a firm pull, Ruby found herself placed on the woman's lap. Even with her seeming gentleness, this woman rubbed off on Ruby in all the wrong ways. Just staring into those eyes of hers made her realize all the horrors she saw in her nightmares were nothing. This woman WAS the nightmare! And the way she kept peering into Ruby's own eyes, gently gripping her chin as she turned her head slowly in different angles, it was like she was peering into her very soul.

"...Hmhm..." Ruby was actually surprised by the sudden chuckle the grandmother let off, releasing her grip on Ruby's chin as she soothingly stroke her head. "You have such pretty eyes, Ruby..."

"Umm... T-Thank you?" Ruby wasn't quite sure how to take the compliment. Her mommy always taught her to be nice and courteous or some word, always say thank you when someone compliments you, and bless you if someone sneezes. This was the first time in her life though where someone strangely complimented her for her eyes.

"And such sweet manners." She continued. "Tell me, Ruby. Do you know who I am?" Was it a trick question? There was some bizarre form of doubt in her curious question, one like Ruby's never heard of before.

"Y-Yes..." Ruby stuttered. "Y-You're Granny... my grandma, right?"

"Grandma?" The woman nearly flinched at those words with surprise, but supposed it would have to suffice for now. She knew whatever reason Cinder took this girl in, Cinder had lied about her relationship to her. As such, it would only make sense she would have to come up with something just as convincing to bring Ruby to such a place. So, with a hearted smile, she nodded lightly as she continued to stroke Ruby's head. "I suppose so. Yes, dearie, I'm your grandmother. You may also call me Salem."

"Granny Salem..." For the first time since meeting her, Ruby grew a slight smile despite her fears. "I think it sounds pretty."

She hated to admit it, but there was some minuscule ounce of comfort those words gave Salem. "Thank you, sweetie." She said as she set Ruby to the floor, standing up herself. "Now, I believe you had a birthday recently, isn't that right?"

"Mh hm," Ruby nodded, "it was today actually. Why?" Curiously enough, even this made the supposed-grandmother smile.

"Well, what grandmother would I be if I didn't have a gift for you?" Those words excited Ruby to no end! Gifts?! From a grandma she's never met before?! WHO MIGHT BE A PRINCESS GIVEN THE CASTLE-LIKE SETTING THEY WERE IN?! With a snap of her fingers, Ruby looked back to the entrance as the doors opened up once more.

The brief excitement Ruby felt upon seeing her mother's face slowly changed to fear once more. Strolling passed her mother, who only stood there with a look of worry on her face, were several of the beowolves, the very same Ruby passed time and again throughout these halls. Was this all a trick? Was her grandmother secretly some evil queen bent on world domination? Was she going to feed her to the monsters around her and keep Ruby from living happily ever after?!

She didn't get much time to contemplate this. With one step after the other, the Grimm approached. Some of them growled slightly, others gruffed and huffed here and there. But all of them stood side by side as they neared the innocent Ruby. Ruby could only tremble with fear once more as she clutched Salem's leg in fear, holding onto her for dear life. It almost amused Salem how innocent and frightened the young girl was being. It was almost cute.

Almost.

It was just several feet away from them did the Grimm come to a halt. Ruby shut her eyes with fear as she buried her face into Salem's dress. She could practically feel them breathing down her neck! Who knows what sort of horrible cruel fate awaited her!

"Ruff!" Ruby blinked as she looked back. "Ruff! Ruff!" That sounded almost familiar. She couldn't help it, she had to look back to the menacing Grimm that threatened to eat her. No matter what her mind was telling her, her gut told her to keep staring into the crowd of Grimm. "Grrrrr! Ruff! Arf!" And then, she saw it.

It. The gift her grandmother had for her. Amongst the crowd of Grimm, a small figure could be seen scurrying about. It was definitely smaller than any of the other Grimm, Ruby could practically see the small figure running passed the large legs it ran through. After several more moments, Ruby gasped at the sight.

"A puppy!" She squealed with excitement. Even Cinder was surprised when she peered into the room.

There it was, in front of Ruby, Grandma's wonderful gift. The Pup itself was definitely a Grimm, there was no denying it, but compared to all the Grimm before her, this one looked like the closest thing to a real puppy or wolf at that. It's skin was pitch black, from it's lower jaw to it's tail. The only color that came from it was the white mask of it's face, which stretched from it's snout to the tips of his ears. And even with the similar menacing look it shared with the other Grimm, there was a sense of decency and peace from it's eyes. It was nothing more than a pup, from looks, and heart.

"I made it just for you, sweetie." Salem stated, patting her head. "It will be your shadow, and as you grow, it will be your guardian."

"My shadow?" Ruby asked curiously. As if to show what she was referring to, the pup itself dived into Ruby's own shadow, disappearing from sight. Leaning over to her shadow with shock, Ruby was even more surprised as a pair of red eyes glowed from it before she was tackled back by the small pup who jumped out from it. "Ah-! S-Stop, that tickles! Hahaha!" Ruby couldn't help but giggle as she squirmed under the pup's ticklish tongue.

"Do you like it?" Salem's question was immediately answered as Ruby jumped to her feet, wrapping her arms around Salem's waste as she hugged tightly.

"I love it! Thanks Granny Salem!" She squealed.

Interesting. All Salem could think was interesting. This child definitely had a comforting presence compared to most people she's met in her long life, one of the very few she ever tolerated. With a warm smile, she patted Ruby's head once more.

"You're welcome, dear." She replied. "Now, why don't you go run along and play with the other ones? As long as you're here, no Grimm will ever harm you."

"W-Whooa!" Ruby squealed as she was suddenly lifted from the back of her jacket. The next thing she knew, she was being tossed backwards until she landed on the back of one of the large beowolves. Before she could even ask, she was holding onto the rugged bone-like spine of the beast as the creature practically galloped it's way out the doors with the others. It was official. These Grimm were not scary. "Weeeee!" Ruby squeaked, waving to her mother as the Grimm raced down the halls. "I got a puppyyyyyyyy!" She cheered to her mother as she disappeared down the halls, the small pup following after her.

Cinder was speechless. She was overwhelmed with disbelief, joy, confusion, surprise, shock, regret, wonder, too many emotions to count. She was surprised as any to realize Salem never meant to harm her, or if she did she just sent Ruby off to get fed to the beowolves. What's more, she was unable to comprehend any of this. Not only did Salem spare her, she actually gifted her with a present! A dog-wolf thing at that!

Salem was never strictly evil, not the way Cinder knew her as she was raised, but she was hard to please and even harder to get along with so easily. From time and again, she worked Cinder to the bone as she taught her everything she knew about her powers and how to harness it. She was less of a mother to Cinder herself and more of a teacher, but she always did have a semi-caring side to her that she failed to display openly.

Who knows? Maybe things were actually looking on the ups.

"Cinder." Salem called out.

Well that was a short three seconds.

With a deep breath in and out, Cinder approached. Like before the doors slowly closed behind her but it was the farthest thing from Cinder's mind. Whether it was a matter of keeping their conversation private from Ruby herself or any of the others was irrelevant. Everyone else already knew of the child by now. Salem wouldn't have orchestrated this little meeting otherwise.

All the blazing witch herself could do was stand a few feet away from Salem, pulse increasing with each passing second as she just watched her leader sip the tea before her.

"So." Salem finally spoke. "Speak." There was no possible time to jokes here. Everything needed to be straight and to the point from this moment.

"S-Salem, I..." Cinder winced a bit as she pondered what to say. "I swear, it wasn't a matter of keeping her a secret or anything, I-I just didn't... L-Look, I swear this isn't interfering with any business whatsoever. I've been keeping tabs on everything, increasing productivity to make up for any payments spent on her, I haven't let her distract me any of our goals. I-In fact it's thanks to her, we have more than enough support from the White Fang, operations are going smoother-"

"You may keep her."

"-and it's helped blend in with the city. I mean many people think I'm her mother-!" Cinder suddenly stopped as she finally realized what Salem said. "W-Wait... what?"

"I said you may keep her." Salem repeated as she finished her drink.

Nothing but warmth filled Cinder's heart, whether from joy or pure happiness. She doesn't know if Ruby just grew on Salem too quickly, if she was just not bothered by anything about her, maybe the entire point was just to get Ruby a gift, it was impossible to say at this point. All Cinder knew was that for the first time in a long time, she has never been happier.

"I... thank you Salem!" Cinder bowed respectfully with a smile. "I swear, I'll double the productivity and everything-"

"But," Salem's interruption caught Cinder's attention, "there are three conditions."

Of course there was. It wouldn't be this easy if Salem wanted to meet her in person. So she braced herself for the worst of it.

"First," she began, "you must always keep an eye on her. She must never leave your side."

"That goes without saying." Cinder nodded in agreement.

"Secondly, you must train her." It was only now that she was beginning to worry. She didn't even need an explanation on what. "When she comes of age, I want her working with us, Cinder. I don't know if fate brought you two together, or sheer luck, but the girl you found has a very interesting... quality... to her." She commented rubbing her chin.

"Q-Quality?" That could've meant a lot of things. Did she just mean Ruby's kindness? The warmth she gave Cinder herself? There was seriously a lot of possibilities.

"Her Silver Eyes." She explained. "It's a unique trait passed down from strong warriors. She has potential to be come a very valuable ally, as well as a threat. That's why I don't want you to lose her."

"I understand." Cinder nodded again. "She will be invaluable help, I assure you."

That summed up everything she needed to know about this meeting. Why she was so interested in her, why she wanted to meet her in person just to see her eyes for herself. She wasn't sure if she truly considered Ruby a threat, but any word from Salem was final. And Cinder would follow it to it to the very end, no matter the cost.

Besides, it was probably better this way. She had more than enough reason now to bring Ruby into her line of work, to have her follow in her footsteps. Once the future came to her, once she had everything she needed to achieve her own goals, she would create Utopia. A perfect world for Cinder to rule, one where she, Ruby, and others like them could live happily ever after.

"By the way... about the wolf..." Cinder wondered looking back to the doorway.

"It is a gift for her, I assure you." Salem said with a small smile. "You don't have to worry about feeding it, if that's your concern. It draws it's strength from Ruby. Her strength is it's strength, and vice versa. Over time, she should be able to call it at will and send it back to her own shadow safely. And no, you don't need to worry about taking it for... walks." She put delicately. It was the best to explain how she didn't have to worry about taking it to the bathroom outside or something.

"That's a relief," Cinder muttered, "but what else is there about it?" Cinder knew Salem. She didn't do things simply without a plan. "There's something else about it isn't there?"

"Indeed," Salem confirmed, "it will also act as my eyes and ears to her. It'll obey her to it's fullest like any sort of pet. This way will just help me keep an eye on things, to make sure things are running smoothly."

Ah, that explained it. It was Salem's way of keeping her eye on Cinder from this point forward. She didn't tell Salem about Ruby up till this point, but as to whether that meant she distrusted Cinder now or not remained a mystery. At the very least, Salem herself could keep tabs on what's going on as well as ensure Cinder is following through with her orders, not that she would even think of disobeying her. After all, today she got off easy.

She didn't want to push her luck any further than she had now.

"And... what was the third thing?" Cinder asked, almost forgetting it completely. To her surprise, Salem just scratched her cheek at this. She would never believe it in a million years, so she was sure it was just a trick of the mind. But she could almost swear Salem had the smallest of blushes on her face at that moment.

"...Get her to stop calling me Grandma." She instructed. It took all of Cinder's inner strength to refrain from making any sort of face at that very moment, squeezing her hands as she forced the smile on her lips to keep from forming.

'I... I understand." Cinder bowed once more as she prepared to walk away. There was a lot she had to plan for over the next few years, from figuring out how to explain all this to Ruby, as well as begin training Ruby to follow in her footsteps. There was going to be a lot of hard work from this point forward.

"By the way," Salem's voice caught the mother's attention once more, "next time you come to visit me, make sure you don't have any stowaways."

Those were the last things she expected to hear, and the most frightening thing she could ever expect to hear at this point. She had a stowaway follow them on their airship? How?! There was absolutely no way anyone else could have followed them all the way here, much less stowed away on their ship!

Like literally, it shouldn't have been possible! The only ones who even knew they were coming to meet Salem, aka "Granny", was Ruby, Cinder herself, and...

Oh no.

...

...

...

"This place is so biiig..." Ruby commented to herself as she explored the hallways.

What had at first terrified the young girl did nothing more now than to interest her. What she thought were horrifying monsters had slowly become nothing more than mere animals like the ones she would expect at a Petting Zoo or a farm. After riding on the backs of them for the last ten minutes, she found herself wandering the halls of this dark palace with the small puppy in her arms.

This was definitely one of the most interesting birthday's she's had up to this point, and for good reason. She was amazed with all the things she's learned from this point, with meeting her grandmother to finding out that not all Grimm were scary or mean, at least not these ones. And she had no more reason to fear these Grimm either, again just the ones within these halls.

All of them were verily nice, letting Ruby pet them as she passed them every now and them, and even nuzzling their heads against her once in awhile. These were definitely not the same ones from home. These were friendly, a lot less aggressive than the ones she's seen or heard of, and not one of them tried to bit her like the one years ago. Sometimes she would still have nightmares of that encounter if she wasn't sleeping with her big sis or mommy. That's why it was more than surprising to find so many nice Grimm around here! There weren't any Grimm better than these.

Oh, and her puppy of course. Her puppy! All hers! She was so excited and cheerful of it! It looked just like a wolf pup, only more "Grimm-y" compared to the other dogs she's ever seen. He was cute, he was playful, he was cute, his licks tickled her to no end, and most importantly, he was so cute! She finally got the puppy she always wanted! Well, wanted for sure, but just not the one she ever expected. But Grimm-wolf or not, he was still too adorable for the young six-year-old to care.

"Arf!" The wolf pup yelped again in Ruby's arms.

"Hehehe," Ruby giggled as he petted her new puppy, "I'm gonna call you... Wolfie!"

"Ruff! Ruff!"

"Hehehe." Ruby continued to giggle as the pup licked under her chin tickling her.

*thump*

"Oof-!" Ruby yelped as she bumped into something. It wasn't a Grimm, the Grimm here were incredibly gentle and peaceful compared to most of the people she's met thus far. After looking up, she wished it was.

Whoever the man before her was, there was something off about him. He had a more menacing presence despite the fact he wasn't physically scarier than her grandma, who she began to see in a new light. He was the same teen as before, that scorpion Faunus. But everything about him... his stance, his wrist blades, the smile on his face, it was all... frightening. Even Salem wasn't this much of a scare.

"Well, well, well, look what bumped into me." He commented leaning over to Ruby.

"Oh, um...s-sorry..." Ruby mumbled as she rubbed her bumped nose.

"Grrrrrrrr! Ruff! Ruff!" The pup began to bark. Apparently Ruby wasn't the only one getting bad vibes from this Faunus.

"Wolfie?" Ruby spoke trying to calm him down.

"Huh? What's this weird thing?" The Faunus questioned as he poked the Wolf repeatedly on the snout.

*CHOMP*

"Ouch!" The guy suddenly yelped as he pulled his finger up. The wolf pup definitely had a strong grip on his finger, because even as he was lifted out of Ruby's arms, he continued to latch onto the Faunus' finger no matter how hard he shook. "Let go of me you stupid runt!"

"Hrnh!" The wolf let out a cry of pain as it was painfully chucked to the wall. Little Ruby could only gasp in horror for her puppy as it collapsed to the floor.

"Wolfie!" She cried. Before she could even run towards it, she was lifted by the collar of her shirt, the stranger pulling her straight up to his face. "Ahh! Let me go you meanie!" Ruby yelled, struggling to get out of his grip.

He was a meanie! Enough said! Anybody that would suddenly hurt a poor innocent puppy like hers and grab Ruby out of nowhere was instantly a meanie! She was so going to tell her mommy on him if it was the last thing she did!

"Meanie, eh?" Hearing such pitiful words of insult brought nothing but a devious smile to him. "That's hurtful you know, you're a hurtful person."

"Mmmo..." Ruby mumbled as his face neared hers.

"Hurtful people have no place here. The last we want is you hurting our Goddess, you know."

"Mmmomm..." Ruby was too terrified to care what he meant by Goddess. He can have whatever a Goddess was as much as he wanted for all she cared! She just wanted him to leave him alone!

"Hmm? Go on, say it. Say those little words. And for each minute she doesn't show up, I'll take one finger." He cackled with a grin.

"W-Why?" Ruby teared up. She couldn't comprehend it! It was like every single word coming out of his mouth was meant to only frighten her more and more.

And it was working!

"Because then, you'll be less of a threat." He explained. "We can't have anyone that would threaten our dear goddess. So I'll say it again: Call. Her." She didn't like this. She didn't like anything this man was doing.

He was terrifying. Her grandma was nicer than this jerk! She wasn't even scary anymore compared to this guy! He was nothing more than a monster who wanted to torment the innocent little six-year-old, for reasons she couldn't comprehend! Even if she did comprehend it later, what was the point? This guy was just a monster who wanted to make Ruby suffer, that's all she understood!

Well, it wasn't like there was any option from this point on. If he wanted it, she was going to give it to him! So with one deep breath, his face becoming increasingly excited by the sight, she screamed.

"Moooooooooooommyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!"

"..."

"..."

"...?" Ruby's face lost color as the fear built up inside. No one was there. Her mother wasn't there, her grandmother wasn't there, there wasn't anyone. All she saw when she opened her eyes again was the menacing grin which grew wider with each breath.

"Well, see? Nobody came." Ruby's struggling intensified as the strange teen suddenly gripped her right pinkie tightly. "So I think I'll start with the right end-"

*WHACK*

"Ow! Damn it that hurt!" He screamed as he dropped Ruby, clutching his eyes from the blow as he fell back.

"Hack-! Oough huff..." Ruby coughed as she suddenly fell back. Her vision was dazed briefly as she saw her sudden savior, but was surprised as any by the hero before her. "Sissy?"

It was. Despite all reasoning for being here and not knowing how she managed to reach this place, she stood right at the ready, standing between her and the madman who attacked Ruby, her umbrella at the ready. It was a bit of a weird thing for Neo to be carrying around constantly, at least it was to Ruby. She wouldn't be able to understand why at the time, but that umbrella was more than just some fashion statement or means to protect herself from the rain.

It was her weapon. And it was her means from keeping this man away from her little sister, real or not.

"Gehhhh...dumb brat! Hahahahha!" The man cackled menacingly once more as he jumped to his feet, wasting no time as he burst with speed, ready to strike the short girl before him. This was going to be fun! This was going to be easy! She wasn't even readying herself for his attack! He had this in the bag!

 _*craaaash!*_

"Eh?" Wow, he really did. Not even one punch was necessary. The moment his blades and fist connected straight to her head, she shattered into millions of tiny glass shards, each evaporating slowly after they collided with the ground.

In fact, it wasn't just her that shattered, but the little girl too! This was amazing! He clearly was too strong for his own good, not that there was any doubt to begin with. But maybe there was something else to it? Maybe this was all some glorious trick played by the mysterious girl who appeared just in the nick of time to act as the little brat's savior? But that also meant she could be a possible threat to his goddess, she could be another danger that could threaten his glorious queen.

And like all threats, they were dealt with. Tilting his head back, he honed in on the sound of running footsteps. With a devilish grin, he casually licked the edges of his wrist blades.

"Oh, I love a good chase..."

At the same time, Neo just ran. She ran and she ran as fast as she could, holding Ruby in her arms for dear life. Where on Remnant were they?!

It was kind of her own fault that she was here to begin with. When Cinder told her that she was going to take Ruby to see her Grandma, she couldn't help but be filled with curiosity. Not just because she said she was going to see her grandma, but the fact hat was an obvious lie. Cinder wasn't her mother, and Neo wasn't her sister. Yet she still loved her all the same after all the time they've spent together. And her curiosity probably wouldn't have gotten to her if it wasn't for the medication she noticed Cinder putting in Ruby's breakfast that morning.

That alone caused suspicion. At first, she thought it was actually poison, and for Cinder to just do this out of the blue was out of the question. When she finally discovered it was nothing more than sleeping medication, and Cinder told her to return to Roman while they were gone for the next few days, or until she returned since she wasn't sure of when she'd return.

Mix all that into a bit batch of suspicion and worry for Ruby, and Neo couldn't help but follow Cinder at every turn, and sneak aboard when the time called for it. It was pretty easy too, thanks to her illusions. If there was one specialty she had, it was her semblance. Perhaps it's why Roman took her in, to enhance her skill and put it to better use, a better purpose than a homeless girl who had to steal to survive.

"Sissy?" Ruby called up as Neo continued running down the halls. Neo just shot her a brief smile, assuring her that everything was going to be ok, before focusing onward.

None of that mattered right now. All that did matter was finding a way out of this despairing darkness! Ever since the ship landed, she's been cutting paths and creating illusions everywhere, just to avoid the numerous Grimm that wandered throughout these hallowed halls. A few times she ended up running into one or two, something she could easily dispatch of with her skills. If the time called for it, she would drop her illusions and make a dash if there were too many to deal with.

But where the heck was she going to go?! Every hall they came to, they either met with a Grimm wandering down it, the amount of threat it possessed unknown to the ice-cream girl at the time, or a room they already ended up in before. It was like a maze of endless darkness, one that tightened it's grip on her focus with each passing second. It was closing in on her as it was alive! And every second spent creeping around the halls, she knew it was only a matter of time before she ran into-

 _*WHAM*_

"Ah!" Ruby cried as she crashed into the floor ahead of Neo.

Neo herself was already at a major disadvantage the minute she turned the corner. No sooner had she made the last turn did the madman from before tackle her into the ground, knocking Ruby out of her arms and pinning the girl herself to the ground. This guy was already on top of her with an expression of delight, both his wrist blades pinning her hands to the side, just barely missing her skin, and both his feet pinning her knees in place.

She had no room to wriggle free. And even if she had the energy left to make another illusion, there would be no fooling him when he's literally inches from her face.

For the first time in a long time, she was afraid.

"You're a slippery little mouse, aren't ya?" He grinned slurping his lips. It was only then that he brought his stinger before her attention, revealing it from over his shoulder. She could only shake as she saw the venom dripping from it's tip. "Oh, don't worry. I promise it'll hurt a lot. Kyeheheheh!" And just like that, he thrust it directly at her eye.

"TYRIAN!"

And just like that, it froze. Several inches from Neo's wavering eyes, the near-impaling stinger that guaranteed her death, had come to a stop. She was thankful to any guardian angel she had at that moment as she just stared with fear at the stinger, recollecting how close it came to stabbing her into the eye, possibly farther given how insane he was.

It was almost like he froze completely given the ease in pressure he finally let up. She couldn't make it out from her angle, only having a limited amount of space to turn her head back, but it was then that she saw what drove him to suddenly freeze, and what voice miraculously saved her life.

There she stood. The supposed grandmother that drove Neo to sneak aboard this entire trip. It wasn't a decision she regretted, despite how menacing this woman looked. Salem. The ruler of this place, and the head of the head of operations. There by her side was Cinder, with her arms crossed and an unamused expression on her face. She could tell instantly the look wasn't directed at the man atop of her though, it was directed at Neo herself. She had a lot of explaining to do after this, however long that might take for the quiet girl.

At least there, clutching Salem's leg tightly, was a sniffling Ruby. The way she clung onto Salem for dear life, it made her wonder. Was this woman seriously supposed to be trusted? Ruby was hard to trust new people she met these days, with what few she had met either being mean to her or sincere and kind to her like Neo herself, Blake, and the rest of her supposed family.

Neo did have to admit despite her appearance, the woman did have a seemingly calm demeanor about her. Even with the glowing eyes of the dozen beowolves situated behind the three of them, she didn't seem any more ferocious than the man she saved Ruby from. It was only then that she realized this Tyrian guy had backed off from her, quickly crawling herself backwards until she was closer to the side not trying to kill her at the moment.

"M-My Lady..." Tyrian stuttered.

"Tyrian," Salem's spoke with a firm but calming tone, not wanting to frighten the girl holding onto her," what are you doing?"

"M-My Lady, I-I...I was just..." The hairs on Tyrian's skin stood on it's ends, unable to come up with what to say. He could already feel the disappointment emanating from Salem's voice, not to mention her aura. "I was just... handling... possible, future problems..." He explained, never looking up from the ground as he bowed.

"I wasn't a problem!" Ruby cried, looking up to Salem. "I was just exploring the halls with Wolfie, and this meanie started hurting us!" Salem patted the girl's head gently, trying to calm the whimpering girl down.

"Is that so?" She already knew the reasoning behind it, given the circumstances. She still wished he would've known better than to attack someone out of nowhere if Salem even allowed them within her domain. "That was very foolish of you, Tyrian."

"Tch-!" His eyes widened with fear. This couldn't be happening! He did something she found foolish! What point was there to life anymore!?

"I want you to apologize to... to my granddaughter this instant." Neo couldn't help but look back at this. Was she really the one trying to pose off as Ruby's grandmother? Ruby herself was too kind and polite to point out her strange looks, so it only made sense that she wouldn't question it. But who was this woman, and why was Cinder accepting it?

"I'MSORRY! I'MSORRY! I'MSORRY! I'MSORRY!" He pleaded, pounding his head several times to the ground with each apology. Ruby sniffled slightly as she watched this. The man terrified her to no end, but she couldn't help but feel a little bad for him the way he kept apologizing.

Not to mention all the head trauma he was inflicting onto himself.

"It's.. It's ok..." Ruby forgave as she looked back up to Salem. "But he still hurt Wolfie!"

At this, Salem just gave her an amused look. "Really? Wolfie seems fine to me."

"Arf! Arf!" The sudden barking made Ruby gasp with disbelief. But sure enough, as she turned around, there stood Wolfie, looking excited as ever as it wagged it's black semi-bushy tail.

"Wolfie!" Ruby screamed for joy as the wolf pup jumped into her arms, tickling her under her chin. "Hehehe! Thank's Granny Salem!" She thanked, hugging her grandma once more. As cute as she found the scene to be, doing her best to hide the growing smile on her face, Cinder knew she had to intervene. After al Salem had done, the least she could do was follow through on her three conditions.

"Um... Hun?" Cinder spoke up scratching her cheek. "Your grandmother doesn't mind, but she would prefer it if you-" Before she could finish however, Salem simply held up a hand, cutting her off.

"It's alright." She muttered to Cinder's surprise. "You're welcome again, sweetie." Neo had to admit, despite how scary the woman looked, she had a sensitive side to her. Maybe that's what drew Ruby to her so easily. At the same time, Cinder was just baffled. She actually allowed Ruby to call her Grandma, regardless of her previous conditions! She didn't want to push her luck thinking, but she could only smirk. She she had a sweeter side to her. "Now run along dear, and take your... sister, with you."

"Ok." Ruby nodded as she walked over to her big sister, helping her to her feet. "C'mon sissy." Ruby ushered as she walked her down the hall, hand in hand. As they passed, Neo couldn't help but look back to Salem who watched her as she passed. While she didn't have anything in terms of threatening or anger directed towards her, she knew she was keeping an eye on her. That and the dozen beowolves that trailed along Ruby, ensuring not just their safety, but to make sure they didn't wander off again and get into any more trouble.

Like sneaking aboard the airship to begin with and discover a place she wasn't supped to know about.

It was something Cinder herself would have to talk to Neo about. There was no way she could allow her to speak a word about this place to anyone, especially Roman at the present time. Fortunately she knew she cared deeply for Ruby, just like herself, so any explanation she threw at her involving Ruby's own safely definitely would've kept her silent. She wouldn't want to make it sound like a threat, but she wanted to keep Ruby happy and safe. If she had to dispose of Neo herself, Ruby would've been nothing but distraught, so she hoped it would never come to that.

Looking back to Salem, she couldn't help it. She just could not help it. She crossed her arms with a small smirk on her face as she looked at her. "So, you don't mind her calling you "Granny", anymore?" Salem returned to her with an unamused look. She didn't seem to mind it of course, but she was definitely telling Cinder not to push her luck.

"It's fine for now," She stated, "just make sure she grows out of it in the future." Cinder continued to smirk. No matter how hard Salem was trying to hide it, she definitely had a soft spot for the young girl just as much as Ruby loved her in turn. Maybe she would never come to love Ruby like her, not that she wasn't hoping of course, but she definitely cared for the small child all the same, with or without her silver-eyed characteristics.

"I'm still surprised you gave Ruby a wolf, though." Cinder commented looking back the way Ruby and Neo left. "You could've picked any sort of animal you know. Maybe not even an animal, something larger or sturdier."

"Wolves are an... interesting species." She explained. "They take care of their pack, so I only found it fitting to find one for Ruby. It will grow quickly, I assure you, and it's maternal instincts will keep Ruby safe through much of her life."

"Well that's a reli-" Cinder suddenly paused at the last remark. "Wait... maternal?"

"It's a girl."

...

...

...

 ** _A/N: Annnnnnd I think that about sums up today's chapter/episode ^^! I'd like to thank the massive fan base again who's helping keeping this story alive, and the wonderful viewers out there enjoying it. Your views and your counts are all making this work possible, and I'd like to thank you for it._**

 ** _Also I'd like to apologize if i messed up the Wolf's gender here or there- originally I was just going to have it be an average wolf grim, and being a guy, but I thought having it have a maternal side would've felt better or something. So sorry for any mixups in gender if I did, which I most likely did XP_**

 ** _So instead of making you all filthy billionaires or giving you my secret to immortality, I thought I'd write another chapter after this ^^! Be sure to leave your thoughts and ask any questions you have left for a certain Cat-Girl people, cause up next, WE HAVE RUBY'S 3rd Q'N'A PANEL! Starring, BLAAAAAAAAKE :D!_**


	17. Ruby's Q 'n A Panel 3

**_A/N: Here we are folks! With our third installment of Ruby's Q 'n A panel! As a reminder, these are meant to be taken not-so-seriously, and mostly just for fun ^^ Also it's been awhile since I last did this, so hopefully I did it right ^^._**

 ** _With that said, please enjoy!_**

...

...

...

The lights swiveled about the stage as they camera came on. Within the center of the screen, a large, long table sat with two chairs behind it. The scenery behind it looked something like that to a game show in terms of style, with numerous paper streamers in the background and small confetti floating about to the ground for the next several seconds. Behind all that, numerous stuffed animals from bunnies, bears, lions, and so on lied about, all angled to face the desk and the hosts who were going to star in this little spectacle.

For what few moments the camera panned, it showed who the "audience" consisted of. With only several chairs lying around, there sat Kali, Blake's mother, with an excited smile on her face, and Cinder Ruby's mother, sitting in the chair right of her. Both mothers were applauding with excitement, chuckling to themselves as they watched the stage. The only other member of the audience was an annoyed looking Roman who just leaned back in his chair disinterested. He was forced to join this against his will, but that didn't mean he had to enjoy it. It was just another one of those things the mothers forced him to participate in, wanting everyone close to their darlings to participate in whatever activity they were in.

Only now was he envious of Ghira, who was apparently helping out several of the White Fang members back at the warehouses with business. He had to admit, it was lucky on his part since they usually don't work when the Belladonnas show up... wait a minute...

Before he could contemplate further, the lights flashed on as an artificial fog flowed into the scenery. The mothers couldn't help but chuckle as they watched this, enjoying the show their girls were putting on.

"And now, ladies and Roman," Blake's voice echoed throughout the stage, "put your hands and paws together for..." Blake continued as she dropped to the right chair.

Throughout the several years, Blake herself had grown to a nice 8 and a half year old girl, growing several inches within the last several years. Compared to the outfit she had on when she first met Ruby, she was now sporting a classy grey-colored skirt over her long silk black pants. She was also wearing a new black jacket now while wearing a nice simple white shirt underneath it. Along with this, she also had a shiny gold necklace across the collar of her shirt. The gold itself wasn't entirely authentic, but for the cheap price she bought it for with her alliance, it wasn't surprising.

It wasn't seen given the position of the camera, but she was actually just dropping from a rope hanging above the camera, so it was nothing more than a few feet to the ground. As for the ropes themselves, they were being held up by the helpful assistance of Ruby's older sister, Neo. The girl herself was the stagehand after all, so it only made sense since she never talked. Following Ruby's drop immediately after to the left chair, there was a long pause between the two girls until a confused look crossed Blake's expression. "Hey Ruby, what is this thing again?"

"Aww Blake!" Ruby groaned. "That wasn't the line!"

 _*pop*_

Both girls jumped at the sound of the streamers going off followed by the sign Ruby's Q 'n A Panel #3 descending from the stage.

"Neo!" Ruby moaned irritated. "That wasn't the cue!" The camera panned over to Neo who just gave her an apologetic look, bonking herself on the noggin playfully.

"Sweetie, play nice now." Her mother reminded from the audience.

"Huff, ok..." Ruby sighed taking a deep breath as she pulled out some papers. "Welcome back to Ruby's third Q 'n A Panel! I'm Ruby!"

"And I'm Blake!" The other girl announced smiling to the camera, doing the same.

"And this is Ruby's Q 'n A show!" They sang in unison.

"Yaaaa!" Both mothers cheered as they clapped playfully. Cinder paused as gave Roman an irritated look, quickly jabbing him in the gut with her elbow.

"Ow!" He yelped.

"Clap for her, don't be rude." She instructed.

"Ugh, whatever..." He mumbled slowly clapping. If you couldn't tell he wasn't feeling that enthusiastic about this, you clearly needed glasses.

"Thank you, thank you, you're too kind!" Blake nodded happily.

"Today's guest stars my second favorite sister in the world, Blake Bella..." Ruby blinked as she looked to the papers once more. "Belly... Building... Donna..." She couldn't figure out how to spell or pronounce the last name.

"Blake Belladonna." The cat stated before turning back to the camera. "Today we're gonna answer the many questions you viewers have been dying to know about me! And... umm..." Blake paused as she leaned over to Ruby. "Hey Ruby, how long have these people just been staring at us and everything we do everyday?"

"I dunno," Ruby shrugged, "I just get emails everyday of people liking what I do. I don't get it either..."

"Huh... Oh well." With another shrug, Blake smiled at the camera. "Today, we're going to answer questions the viewers have been begging to ask me!"

"Family and people I love always come first, so next up on that list comes Blake, my second big sister!" Once again, Blake just looked at her weirdly at this.

"Hey Ruby? I love you too and all like a sister, but if you're counting people related to you and you love first, shouldn't your real sister go first?" With a small frown, Ruby looked off to the side of the camera.

"We've been waiting forever for questions for her, but nobody seems to care about her." At this, the camera panned over to Neo who was now huddled in a corner of the room. The only thing the poor 12-year-old could do was twirl her finger on the ground as she stayed huddled in the corner, a raincloud of sadness pouring over her head.

"Aww I'm sorry to hear that..." Blake frowned as the camera focused on them once again. "So how many questions did I get?"

"Let's find out!" Ruby cheered as she pulled a lever. Within seconds, both girls were covered in piles of papers, stretching all the way from the floor until it covered up to their necks. They could only stare in amazement at the hundreds of pages worth of questions that literally dropped upon them. "Wow... you got a lot!"

"Cool, I'm popular!" Blake cheered, raising her fist.

"I know! I mean look at all of them! You got way more questions than mommy did... Mommy?" Ruby suddenly noticed Cinder was missing from her seat. With the camera panned over, it focused back on Neo, this time showing a downtrodden Cinder huddled in the corner, doing the same thing as the twin-colored girl herself as she silently sobbed.

"It's not fair... Why does the eight-year-old get more questions than me... I'm the mother..." She mumbled. All Kali could do was feel a large sweat drop behind her head, feeling sorry for the poor woman.

"Well without delay, let's start!" Blake giggled, pulling out the first of many questions. "The first set of questions is from one of our biggest fans, THB4, who's been a great fan of our Panel Show! Question 1: How do you feel about a Schnee trying to...take my big sister... spot...WHAT?!" Blake instantly became ecstatic. "Ruby, how could you sell my big wiser spot?!"

"I didn't sell it," Ruby replied poking her chin, "I just offered her to be another big sis like you and Neo. But I haven't seen her since I was three, I barely even remember her to be honest..." It was a sad reality. It wasn't like she didn't remember the fun times they had or anything, or at least what Ruby saw as fun times, but with the years progressing, and barely having seen her since save for news media, she started forgetting what the Schnee girl looked like. Heck even if she didn't, after the near three years since she last met, there's no telling what she looks like now.

"But... You're not sisters or anything anymore, right?" Blake wondered slightly concerned.

"No... Why?" Ruby's response was only brought with a look of unease from both Blake and her mother.

"I'd rather not talk about it..." She muttered, looking onto the next question. "Question #2: How do I feel about Ruby wanting a... puppy...? You got yourself a puppy?!" Blake asked with excitement.

"Well actually-"

"Hahaha, ehhh s-sweetie! Maybe we should move onto the next question!" Cinder waved her hands frantically with a nervous smile as she interrupted.

"But what Wo-"

"No no no, I told you, we can't obvious get a wolf for a puppy! Now let's move on, hahaha..." Kali could only look at Cinder with confusion at her frantically nervous behavior. She was obviously hiding something related to the dog, but as to what remained a mystery. At the same time, Cinder nervously flipped through the pages like there was no tomorrow, wanting to change the subject immediately. It wasn't Ruby's fault she wasn't aware of it at the time, but under no circumstance could she allude to the idea she not only got a pup from Salem, but she couldn't let them see Ruby suddenly call out anything Grimm-related from her shadow. Doing so would've caused a mountaintop of problems, not to mention panic from the current leaders of the White Fang.

"Umm... ok...?" Ruby moved on as she read the next question. "Question #3: Would Blake try to play... match... maker...?" She paused showing the question to Blake. "I don't get this, she's asking you to play with matches?" Blake only looked at the question with shared confusion.

"A matchmaker...? With Ruby's mom... I don't... Hey Miss Fall? Do you play with matches or something?" Blake asked.

At the moment, Cinder could only hide her face and the small blush as Kali chuckled into her hand. She didn't want to explain to the kids what playing "Match Maker" meant for single parents or just people who were dating until they were at least a bit older.

"Why don't we skip that question for now, dear?" Kali suggested.

"Ok, I guess..." Blake was astounded how all the questions asked today were actually causing more questions for themselves.

Not to mention unneeded confusion.

"Ok, Question #4: Did Ruby ever tell me about that... friend she made at the park? What friend?"

"Oh yeah, you should've seen her Blake!" Ruby cheered with excitement. "I was getting picked on by a bunch of dumb bullies, but then she came and saved me! She was like a super hero!"

"Really?" Blake's brief excitement changed to curiosity soon after. "Wait, you were getting picked on? Where was your sis or mom at the time?"

"Oh, mom had to do something for work, and sis was getting cookies at he bakeries near it." Her explanation caused nothing but a small amount of regret for Neo. She hated the fact that even within the few minutes she left Ruby by herself, she still managed to get in trouble by a bunch of bullies. Granted, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as Roman did when she was younger, but she still felt guilty all the same.

"It's alright Neo, I don't blame you for it." Cinder whispered as she leaned over to the young girl. It didn't make the guilt go away, but it was enough to bring a small smile of comfort to her.

"Anyway, question #5!" Blake continued. "Do I ever get scared wondering if there's monsters on the other side of doors these days? Why would I get scared period?"

"Oh, I think it's when we explored the basement that one time." Ruby reminded. It took a mere second for Blake to remember that afternoon, the first day Blake ever met Ruby.

"Oooooh, that time." She will admit to herself, it the incident did bring nightmares to her, and a minor bedwetting that one time it got horrifically bad, but it was the last thing on her mind these days. "I will say I was scared for a bit of traveling after, but it wasn't that bad." She replied, smiling back to her. "Plus, I got a new sister that day!"

"Me too!" Ruby cheered. The mother's just awed to themselves at the sight as they looked back to each other. It did cause a bit of a rift in terms of trust issues between them for the next few meetings, but over time the Faunus leaders eventually forgave them for the incident. Not just from how trusting Cinder and her company were seeming, but they found it harder and harder to imagine separating Ruby and Blake from each other, seeing how close the young girls were becoming.

Moving along with the show, Ruby read the next question. "Question #6: Is she trying to talk my mommy and her parents into... coming over to her house for a VISIT?!" Both girls gasped with excitement as they looked their mother's respectively. "Can I? Can I?"

"Please mom? Pleeeeeeeeeeease!" Blake begged.

Kali just looked at Cinder with curiosity and acceptance. She was fine with the idea as long as Cinder was. Unfortunately, that meant Cinder herself was the tie-breaking vote they needed, and that brought several problems with it.

First off, now she had to say yes. If they decided not to, not only would both girls know it was because of Cinder, but her little one would never forgive her! It as an unfair moment of Cinder's life! Curse you cruel fate! The second issue was Ruby's wolf-thing. The wolf followed Ruby no matter where it went, and at times the wolf caused trouble, it quickly hid itself into Ruby's shadow to the six-year-old's laughter. But that also brought about a problem of the wolf possibly coming out in the middle of any sort of Sleepover. They had to find a way to keep the wolf separated from Ruby side since it managed to slip under doors due to it's interesting ability.

But gosh darn it, she couldn't just say no to that face. Especially when it was Ruby's face and Blake's at the same time.

"Eh...w-well..." She glanced over to Kali as she scratched her cheek nervously.

"I'm fine with it if you are, Cinder." Kali whispered, thinking it would bring comfort to the other mother.

It didn't.

With a deep sigh, Cinder smiled to her sweetheart. "Ok sweetie, we can talk about a sleepover after the show."

"Yaaa!" Both Ruby and Blaked cheered before high-fiving each other.

Cinder could already tell she was gonna regret this.

"Ugh, this is so lame..." Roman muttered as he stood from his chair. "I'm going to get a drink, I'll be right back." Cinder grumbled internally at this but allowed it. He was at least staying at the show, and in case he wanted a repeat of what happened when he lost Ruby, he was going to return to it in a few minutes.

Meanwhile, to his surprise, he ended up finding Ghira helping himself to a fresh can of beer from the fridge, the warehouse having been prepped for the arrivals of the Belladonnas as well as the Q 'n A Show.

"Ah, Roman my man," Ghira called over puling out another beer, "want one?" Roman smirked as he caught he beer tossed to him.

"You've read my mind." He smiled as he pulled the tab.

...

"Next Question," Blake announced, "Lucky #7: How many pranks do me, Ruby, and Neo pull on people?" Both Ruby and Blake looked at each other briefly before bursting into giggles. "Teheheh, too many to count!" Even Neo couldn't help but smile cheekily.

And sadly, the mothers couldn't help but smirk too, knowing full well how much "fun" their little girls loved to have. Even at their expense. Kali herself could recall the first prank they ever tried to pull which involved the traditional bucket of water over a door when Ruby was four and Blake was seven. Unfortunately for them, they were too short to reach the top, and the bucket was too heavy for Ruby to keep a steady grip on while standing on Blake's shoulders at the same time, resulting in the two collapsing with dirty water dumped all over them and a bath later on.

Nor could Cinder forget the lovable time Ruby tried pulling her own prank with Neo a few months after. To be fair, it was a step up from the traditional "bucket over the door trick". She actually got the clever idea of trying to put itching powder in Cinder's... bra... no doubt an idea Neo helped her create, before stuffing it in the laundry basket ready for Cinder to bring back to her own room.

Sadly for Ruby, she ended up getting the bra mixed up with Neo's, resulting in the preteen to go into an itching fit for nearly three hours that day. It only got worse when Cinder found out what happened and, as opposed to getting angry about it, finding herself laughing at the thought of a prank backfiring in such a way. It was too perfect with how it ended, Cinder was forced to admit.

"You should've seen the prank we pulled today!" Ruby added.

"Oh, what prank?" Kali asked curiously. Neither of the two mothers were aware of any prank having been pulled this morning, so neither of them knew if a prank had already been pulled or was in the process of being pulled.

"Well, it didn't really go off yet, so I don't know if it counts," Blake commented, "but it's gonna be funny! We got the idea from a cartoon we saw!"

"You don't say?" Cinder replied with a grin. "And what prank is that?"

"It was really funny, mommy!" Ruby chuckled. "We emptied one of the cans in the fridge and replaced it was gasoline!"

"And I switched the tab with flint instead, so it'll spark and set off the gas when someone pulls it!"

Both mothers went silent at this. It sounded less like a prank and more like a horror show waiting to start.

"...Wait, you did what-"

 _ ***BOOOOOOOM!***_

Nearly all five girls in the room jumped as the explosion went off, the flames of the explosion briefly fluttering through the cracks of the door before smoldering. While Ruby and Blake high-fived each other again with victory, both mothers only looked on with fear at each other. Who knows who just opened that can and potentially ended up dying from the resulting explosion. What's more, Cinder was pretty sure she knew who the victim was seeing how they only left five minutes ago.

As if to answer her question, the door soon came tumbling down as smoke bellowed from the hallways. As it cleared, standing there in the door's place was a soot-covered Roman who had a small bit of flame at the top of his head and tiny speckle of smoke sizzling from it. And just to prove his involvement with the sudden prank, he was still holding the rigged tab from the beer he was drinking.

"...I think I'm gonna go sober from beer for awhile..." He mumbled before collapsing from exhaustion. If he was fine, being at point blank of the blast, then Ghira was definitely fine for certain.

"Hehehe, he fell for it!" Ruby cheered, high-fiving Blake.

"Ruby, that was very naughty of you!" Cinder stated, earning a worried frown from the young girl.

"You too Blake," Kali nodded, "someone could've seriously gotten hurt from that!"

"Oh... I'm sorry mommy..." Ruby sniffled as she apologized. Already Cinder was feeling guilty for having yelled at he. She was just trying to play, what she thought was, a harmless prank from a cartoon. Naturally the laws of physics and reality don't apply in cartoons, so she wouldn't have known how dangerous that truly was.

"But we didn't do it," Blake argued to Ruby's surprise, "he said he drank beer. We only rigged one of the juice drinks we like." While it didn't make the situation any better, it did leave one question remaining.

"Then who pulled that one Roman?" Kali asked. It took Cinder awhile before she suddenly noticed the innocent look Neo had on her face while turning away her face. It might not have been the giveaway needed, but the twiddling thumbs were.

"I got a good suspicion..." She replied, gesturing her head to the seemingly-innocent older sibling. Kali let out a silent "oh" as she nodded, before looking back at the girls with Cinder. "Ok girls. We won't get mad at you this time, but in addition to getting rid of the can, next time check with us before pulling a prank, ok?"

"Ok... sorry mommy..." Ruby sniffled as she looked back to the papers.

Great, now she was feeling regret and guilt for yelling at Ruby.

"So... last question from THB4 that we missed." Blake revealed. "So this will be Question #8: Do I like to read to Ruby, and while doing it, do I let Ruby scratch my ears?"

"You like having your ears scratched." Ruby commented as she scratched behind Blake's ears. It as among the more adorable scenes the mothers ever came across in the past, often seeing them doing it once in awhile, other times seeing Blake tickling Ruby again with her tail when she was three and a half.

"Yeah, I don't usually read if she's scratching at the same time, but yeah I don't mind her scratching." Blake relished the feeling of the scratching, always finding it so soothing when someone else was doing it. "As far as reading goes, we actually make up our own stories!"

"Yeah! Like one time we made a book called Little Red Ruby Hood!" Ruby said with excitement.

"And Beauty and the Blake!" Blake added.

"She was so happy about it, she read it for days." Kali told Cinder.

"You should've seen Ruby's face by the end of her book." Cinder retorted. It was so much fun seeing Ruby so interested in a book she herself made with Blake. Cinder had such a fun time reading it to her.

"And now for the other questions!" Blake cleared her throat as she gathered more papers. "This one is from TM Calypso!"

"Hehehe..." Ruby started giggling as she walked away from the camera's view.

"Now for their question: What is the most annoying thing Ruby has ever done to-" Blake paused as a small red dot appeared on her forehead, shifting her eyes towards it, "-me..."

It was hard to get mad at her, the mothers having seen her do this before, and how Blake looked when she played around the last time. Here stood Ruby, laughing and chuckling to herself silently as she had a laser pointer targeted and shooting at Blake's forehead. Bits of sweat started dripping from her forehead as her hands started shaking. With an incredibly forced, teethy smile, Blake grunted to herself as she tried to move along with the show while ignoring her animalistic instincts.

"I'm sorry," Blake continued as she forced herself to speak through her teeth, "but I'm a very disciplined and mature little girl." Her eyes started following the laser as Ruby began moving it around Blake. "And nothing... has ever annoyed me... nor is there anything...that...could...NYAAAAH!" Blake suddenly yelped as her instincts took over, hastily chasing for the streaming light of the laser pointer for dear life.

At the same time, the mothers were helpless from the chuckling this caused. They found it too adorable and cute, despite watching Blake chase endlessly for the small light. It was amusing watching the girl acting just like an actual pet cat, scrambling all over for the laser.

"Ok honey, you had your fun." Cinder whispered over to Ruby. "Now put it away, sweetie."

Ruby could only look back at her in confusion. "But I don't have it."

"Huh? Then who..." Before they could turn to her, Kali quickly tossed the pointer away, humming to herself as she feigned innocence. "Never mind..."

"Ok, onto the last 5 questions." Ruby announced.

"Awwww..." The mothers whined. Some parts of the show were definitely more questionable than thus far, but they still enjoyed watching their daughters have fun.

"Question #9 from EndlessChains! What-" Ruby stopped as she watched Blake shuffle her way into the chair with depression.

"I couldn't get the light..." She sniffled. "Huff, anyway, what's the question?" She looked over the paper Ruby handed her. "Question #9: What is my favorite activity to do with Ruby?" Both girls looked to each other at this then back to the paper.

"Ooooh..." They oohed in unison.

"That's kinda a toughie." Blake scratched her chin trying to think.

"Can we do more than one answer?" Ruby asked off to the side.

"Yes sweetie, as many as you want." Cinder replied with a nod.

"In that case..." She smiled back to Blake. "The list?"

"The list." Blake nodded. Both mothers looked expectantly as Ruby pulled out a large roll of paper from underneath the desk. What fun and fascination they had was quickly drowned in despair as Ruby unfolded it, watching the large wad of paper unfold and stretch until it was touching the mothers' feet.

"Oh no..." Cinder regretted her words.

"Let's see here..." Blake began as she pulled out a pair of fake glasses, trying to look sophisticated. "First... we both like to draw, we like to pull pranks, we like make up pranks, we like taking hot baths as long as there's plenty of bubbles-"

"We like telling stories," Ruby continued, trading off and on with Blake, "we like watching movies, we like seeing huntresses, we pretend to play heroes, we like exploring new areas, we like visiting each other, we like our birthdays, we like celebrating Christmas, we liked Halloween-"

"Look what you've done to us!" Kali sputtered to Cinder who was already weeping.

"I'm sorry!"

"-we like getting lien from the tooth fairy, we like the Easter bunny, ooh! We like playing tag when Blake uses her shadow thingies-"

"-which are a lot of fun," Blake commented, "as well as counting how long I can do it for or how often. We like pretending to be Grimm monsters, we like seeing each other every visit, we like hanging out with Ruby's older sister, we like dressing Ruby up like an animal too-"

 ***Three Hours Later***

At this point, both mothers regretted their choice of being the great angelic mothers that they were. This was torture. This was horrifying. Any staff meeting they had, any heist Cinder pulled to collect money, any protest Kali went to to fight for the rights of the Faunus, none of those things were even half as horrific as this. They just kept going on and on with each passing sentence! And the mothers were too sweet and considerate to tell them to stop or move on, not wanting to break their little hearts.

All the mothers could do was use all of their inner strength from falling asleep, forcing their bodies to remain seated so they didn't fall over from exhaustion.

Thankfully, hope revealed itself as they neared the end of the long list of paper.

"-and we like making pies, adding special toppings to cupcakes, annnnnd licking the leftover batter from any treats we make." Blake finished off. It was amazing the girls had enough energy to speak for so long as opposed to just reading the paper back and forth with each other.

Clearing her throat slightly, snapping Kali out of her stupor, she clapped. "Yaaa, that was exciting." She forced herself to sound enthusiastic.

"Aww, is it over?" Kali pretended to whine. "That's too bad-"

"Don't worry!" Ruby smiled. "We have more on the other side!"

"NOOOOOOO!"

 ***Three More Hours Later***

"-and lastly, we like thinking of what weapons we would make if we became huntresses!"

Agony. Despair. Terror. Pain. Suffering. Anguish. No word could describe how the mothers felt at this point. Cinder felt like she was partly lobotomized, and Kali felt like a literal shell of herself, all her muscles not responding no matter how loud she screamed to move. Cinder would rather still deal with Ruby when she was a baby; late night feedings, diaper changes, spittle, all of it was heaven compared to the six hours of listing off different things. Even Kali would rather deal with her daughter back when she was younger, always struggling to keep up with the infant who could literally get up to anything, her claws making it easy to grasp anything or climb upon everything around her. That was still easier than maintaining the will to continue living at this moment.

"No more... please..." Cinder cried to herself, thoughts being shared by Kali.

"And now for our last set of questions!" Blake announced to the mothers' relief. "This one comes from another good friend named DennyIsMenece..." Both Blake and Ruby looked over the name again.

"Hey Blake, why do these people have weird names?" She whispered wondering.

"I don't know, it's just a thing I guess." Blake whispered back. "Now, for Question #10, the first of their 4: Why don't I visit more often?"

"Hey yeah, how come you don't visit us more, Blake?" Ruby pouted. "You'll love living here with me and mommy!"

"I know Ruby, but my mom and dad have their work they can't miss. They keep saying it's something they must do."

"She's right Ruby," Cinder nodded with agreement, "Blake's parents are very busy most of the time, just like I am most of the time."

"Besides, it makes the visits more special." Kali said trying to cheer the girl up. "Isn't the thing that makes these visits special the fact you don't see her quite as often?"

"Umm... I guess..." Ruby replied, unsure of the slightly confusing question. "Let's see, Question #11: Have you discovered your...sem...blan...cee...Semblance!" Ruby chirped, proud for being able to read such a big word. "Have you discovered your semblance yet? Well I can answer that! Of course she has!"

"It's kinda funny how I discovered it, really." Blake said, looking back on the memory. "We were both playing tag with each other one day a few weeks after my first visit here, when Ruby was still a toddler. Anyway she was it this time and I was running away. Unknown to me, I ended up dropping my first shadow in place when I continued running. A minute after I hid, Ruby started crying in the middle of the hallway."

"I was scared." Ruby stated. "I just touched your shadow thing and it suddenly disintegrated, I thought you died or something."

"Yeah, you kept apologizing to me afterwards when you thought I was a ghost," Blake chuckled, "and you wouldn't stop crying till your mom came over. Anyway, Question #12: Are you a part of the White Fang? Of course I am! So are my parents."

"What's a White Fang?" Ruby asked curiously.

"We fight for equal rights for Faunus everywhere. You know, animal people like me!"

"Oooh, I wanna help sis!" Ruby gleamed with excitement as she looked over to her mother. "Mommy, can I be in the White Fang thing too?" Both mothers just chuckled at this little question, finding it the most adorable thing asked thus far today.

"Maybe when you're older, sweetie." It might've been a bit pointless saying such things to Ruby. She didn't mind her helping her friend in the future, especially if Cinder required the help of the White Fang too, but Ruby had her own destiny as one of Cinder's best allies, as well as a lovable daughter.

"Well with that, I think we need to move onto the final question. Now, for the Grand Finale!" Blake cheered as another burst of streamers shot forth. This time Neo had it on cue. "Question #13: Do I know... huh?" Blake read over the question again before groaning. "Ugh, Adam."

"Who's Adam?" Ruby was more curious as to why that question irritated the young Blake.

"Just some boy in the White Fang. He's a jerk, he thinks he's so cool and all..."

"Oh, I thought you had a crush on him, dear?" Kali said with a smirk. The priceless blush over her face said it all.

"W-What?! No I don't!" She screamed while Ruby just chuckled.

"Oh, really? What was it you said to yourself while writing your diary last night?" Kali said with glee. "Dear Diary, that Adam is such a cute knucklehead. I love his read hair-"

"MOOOOM!" Blake yelped stumbling over the desk as she tried to jump over it.

Everyone had lost it at this point. Ruby was laughing on the table in a mad fit of giggles about Blake finding a boy cute, Cinder was trying her hardest to stifle any bouts of laughter, and failing terribly, and her mother was running around the apparent studio as Blake chased her to stop. Not that it was surprising of course, not many people prefer having their deepest secrets and stories revealed to the world, even though not many people probably watched this panel.

After a bit of roughing around the floor, having tripped before the camera after another minute, Blake's face appeared with embarrassment and disgust as she spoke into the camera, Ruby's laughing face being the only thing noticeable off to the side. "T-That's all the time we have now! W-We'll see you later! NONE OF ITS TRUE!"

 _*bzzzzzzzzt*_

As if only meant to add insult to injury, after Blake did her hardest to turn off the camera, the screen displayed an image of a young blake on her bed, writing in her diary while thinking of a kid Adam in a pink heart bubble, all of this being drawn with crayon.

Once again, Neo's handiwork...

...

...

 ** _A/N: And hooftah, another fun Q 'n A panel ^^ you know one of the hardest things guys? When you're writing without trying to sound so repetitive. Some parts are easier than others, but a common occurrence is using the same wording over and over again, like "He said curiously", "She said curiously", "they said curiously", etc. It's a lot harder in certain areas, especially if you have adhd like me where you're more prone to repetitiveness X/ (wish I was making that up), or writing long fanfics like this. I do what I can to handle those._**

 _ **Apologies if your questions didn't get answered either. In addition to some of them being unable to answer, such as "does blake know about the dog" or anything, I actually wrote this on the same day I posted the Grandma salem chp, which everyone loved :P it was all well and everything and I gave it some time, but apparently the last few reviews I got were added with questions.**_

 _ **Though if it means anything, those would've resulted in the same answers, soooo yeah XP.**_

 _ **I also would like to announce something. You guys have been a great fanbase, and I mean really great one X)...so sadly no update tom X Not for lack of trying, I'm actually writing my next one as we speak so I MIGHT have a post tomorrow. Problem is I gotta be up by like 6 in the morn tomorrow for work and won't be home till sometime after 3 if I'm lucky X/ that alone is gonna wear me out to no end. Last saturday i was out by like 6-8. Might not sound like much, but i can usually write till 9-10, so it'll be quite the exhaustion X/**_

 _ **As such, I want to leave today and tomorrow for you guys to vote for something. At this point, you have 3 glorious choices to choose from (after your review of course XP) to vote for what you guys would like for your very first bonus episode ^^**_

 _ **The options are as followed:**_

 _ **1- a Halloween Special taking place with Ruby's 5-year-old self, and yes taking place after she meets Yang. It would be around 2 parts (2 chapters) or 3, hard to say. But shenanigans are commonly as followed as Ruby celebrates Halloween for the first time with both sisters, Blake and Neo ^^**_

 _ **2- a Christmas special which will most likely contain 3 parts to it due to how long it will be (or planned to be) with a 6 (technically 7 since Cinder doesn't know Ruby's birthday yet) year old Ruby celebrating with friends and family, ANNNNNNNNNND maybe someone's favorite Grandma *hint hint***_

 _ **3- Or lastly, the one taking place immediately after this one revolving around Ruby taking a trip to Blake's home for a slumber party with her, and several of her friends (with one such guest appearance of the adorable Velvet ^_^). As to how many parts it would have, idk, so it might be a lot, maybe a few, but definitely a few.**_

 ** _So let me know what your guys' votes are on. Highest vote by Monday (one of my first days off in awhile) will be the winner ^^!_**

 ** _Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed this Q 'n A panel ^^ idk when the next one will be, buuuuuut I think if I have it, it'll be starring, what I hope will be, everyone's favorite grandma X)..._**


	18. Birthday Announcement Contest!

A/N: Hey everyone! it's your favorite author! Or at least when it comes to the Mama Cinder AU thing XP, here with an important announcement: MY BIRTHDAY IS COMING UP :D!

Audience: Nobody Cares.

SHADDUP!... Anyway, as such with the themes of birthdays, I thought about holding a little contest for the many fans- a birthday Fanfic contest :D!

Audience: We want an actual chapter!

I SAID SHADDUP! As I was saying, it's a birthday Fanfic contest! The rules of the contest are simple: post a birthday-related Fanfic involving my Rwby Mama AU series and everything. It can take place in any part of Ruby's life, from when she was a baby to the age of 13 (as that is the point I'll finally move onto the first volume of the Real Rwby from there on X)). It can be as long as it needs to, but has a 2k word minimum to be elligible (and no, unlike my posts, author notes don't count XP).

Audience: When are we getting to the good part of Rwby?

*BANG!*

ANYONE ELSE T_T?!...Eh hem...

Anyway, as I was saying, the contest will begin between now till my birthday- to anyone wondering when or worried if they'll have time, no worries: my birthday is on the 26th ^^ You can post any time between then and now to be eligible! And it has to at least be up to 2k words, so you should have plenty of time.

The winner of the contest will receive 2 rewards: 1, provided they're okay with it of course, I'll post their winning fanfic in this fanfic itself and credit them as the creators :P! And the 2nd Reward will be a bonus chapter of their choice, taking place at any point in time of Ruby's life, and about anything they want ^^

So with that said, i hope to see peoples works of wonder within the next 2 weeks :P! Like I said, you have between now and my birthday, the 26th to post something, and it has to be birthday related. It doesn't even have to be Ruby's birthday if it helps, anyone's birthday will do (though you will win kawaii points if it's ruby's XP).

Good luck, and hope to have an update by tomorrow, as well as the winning vote results for the bonus episodes!(Refer to the previous chapter's author's notes at the bottom if you're wondering what I'm talking about)


	19. The First Lesson!

**_A/N: Huzzah! Another fun chapter for you loveable guys and gals ^^. I would like to note a few things before we begin:_**

 ** _1\. This has been brought up a few times in the past, with my writing style being a bit "too-detailed in some parts, more in others", etc. and etc. Thing is... aren't a lot of books/stories like this :/? They write on and on in one simple detail about a FREAKING PERSON OR SCENE T_T I'm not yelling at you guys, i'm just annoyed with books, thats why I read manga and fanfics. Trying to picture whats going on in the book AND reading it at the same time is nothing short of a migraine..._**

 ** _As such, in addition to those reasons, the other reason I do is because I have ADHD- might sound like a weird thing to say, but apparently i have a hard time reading emotions half the time, so to make sure I don't say something like "she was surprised with tears" and make it confusing, I often write details behind it._**

 ** _2\. Regarding the birthday fanfic contest, please post within your own fanfics and let me know in the reviews or pm me saying you'd like to participate so I know who's who :P!_**

 ** _and 3. No need to worry- checked this before even getting to the A/N, and i have over 7k in words, so no need to worry about my A/N's taking up all the space XP._**

 ** _Enjoy!_**

...

...

...

"Ok hun, you can open it now."

"Oh boy!" Ruby cheered with excitement as she opened her final gift.

Another year had come and gone, and with it, another birthday.

The now Seven-year-old Ruby was enjoying much of her life and all the things it had to offer. There were numerous changes to her life she had to adjust to, but not one of them she found boring. Cinder, on the other hand, found them rather expensive.

It started with the matter of Ruby's education. Schools were a no go for numerous reasons. First off, she just couldn't afford to take her to one. Not financially of course, she had plenty of Lien lying around, including savings in cases of emergencies. But like bringing Ruby outside when she was younger, she just couldn't take the off chance some person from Ruby's past could possibly recognize her, it was too risky!

Because of that, Ruby was homeschooled. Not directly from Cinder herself or Neo, though she did help her with her reading comprehension, she was given a tutor to teach her as well as an online schooling program.

Finding a tutor alone was the first hard part. On top of finding one they could afford for the next several years of Ruby's life, they also needed to find someone who was friendly, likeable, patient, understanding, caring, and the most importantly, didn't ask too many questions. She needed them to keep a low profile on Ruby's whereabouts, as well as her living conditions. Any adult that came across Ruby living most of her life up in this penthouse was bound to be curious, which is something she couldn't allow.

Curiosity lead to wonder. Wonder lead to questions. Questions lead to answers. And answers lead to eventually someone learning about Ruby's whereabouts and possibly taking her away from Cinder forever!

Or maybe that was just paranoia, one of the two.

Either way, it wasn't just for Ruby's secrecy, but Cinder's secrecy as well. A person who asked too many questions would try to pry into her own personal life, and the last thing she needed was for some tutor to figure out about Cinder's job within the city.

It took probably a month after Ruby's last birthday before Cinder found a suitable tutor. She was just an average fresh out of college girl trying to start a life for herself. Those alone gave Cinder more than enough reasons to hire her, seeing how anyone desperate for money would be able to keep a lid on things. Plus, she was really nice. Ruby seemed to like her, and Neo helped her from time to time too as her little assistant.

Those were just the reasons behind a tutor though. The other reason they couldn't afford to take Ruby to school was the new little addition to her life.

Wolfie.

Wolfie was a charming wonderful gift for Ruby that her "Grandma Salem" gave her on the eve of her sixth birthday. The wolf had numerous special qualities about it, the biggest one was it's special ability. It had the power to literally jump into Ruby's shadow to remain hidden, a trait it could only do with Ruby's and no one else's. She could recall the humorous moment of Ruby's life, several weeks after getting Wolfie, when she tried pushing the puppy into Neo's shadow and then Cinder's own. It didn't to the girl's disappointment, but it was a rather humorous sight to just watch.

And the Wolf itself was surprisingly protective of Ruby too. Even when it was a pup, it didn't whine or complain to anything Ruby did, even when Ruby tried pushing him into the ground of someone else's shadow. It yelped a bit, but it still followed around Ruby like it was the one in charge of her. For all they knew, she pretty much was.

The pup was specially made by Salem herself. It wasn't just meant to be a way for Salem to keep an eye on it, but it was to be Ruby's guardian against the dangers of the world. Over time she said Ruby would learn how to summon the wolf out of her shadow with ease, for now simply coming in and out of it's own will unless Ruby audibly called it. And based on the information Salem gave Cinder, aside from not needing to eat or go to the bathroom, it would also grow in strength as Ruby grew stronger too.

It was also supposed to grow relatively fast according to Salem, not just in terms of strength that it drew from Ruby, but definitely in size. Much to Cinder's shock, in just under a year, the pup had grown from a simple one-foot puppy to the size of Ruby's bed. That might not sound like much, but that was just under the first two months alone. It almost scared Cinder whenever she thought how large the wolf was going to grow. It only baffled her more each time the wolf would jump into Ruby's shadow as if it fit perfectly, even though the dog was now up to Ruby's shoulders in terms of height.

It took several hours alone to convince the Tutor several months after she started her job how the wolf was just Ruby's semblance and not some Grimm. Trying to convince a classroom would've been impossible.

And like all changes, changes came to Ruby's person as well. For starters, as opposed to the previous white-hearted pink shirt, she was now sporting a fun red shirt. It wasn't the fact it was her favorite color that made her like it so much, it was the patterns of fire that went across the base of it and her sleeves. She wanted to be just like Mama after all.

It only made Cinder gush.

She also started wearing an orange jacket more often, not just for the previous reasons, but because it housed enough pockets for anything she needed at the time, like her new scroll she got for her birthday! It was the newest model, with the best warranty and mobile plan of course. Just like Neo's.

So now, there was no telling what Ruby's present was going to be.

*rip*

"Oh boy! It's...a... bat?" Ruby looked over the large bat in confusion. She didn't want to seem ungrateful, but not once did she ever ask for the bat to begin with. She's barely showed an interest in baseball so it was kinda hard to show enthusiasm. "Ummm... thanks mom."

"It's not for playing, Ruby." Cinder fretted over everything she had to say from this moment.

It was just hard to show any enthusiasm. If it wasn't for the baseball bat itself, it was for the last half hour of her birthday. Her mother had her come to one of their old warehouses where they used to live in, find the biggest room they could and clear it away of dozens of large boxes, and finally remained silent during the whole trip here. There was something weird going on here, she just couldn't figure out what.

On top of that, Roman was here too. She hadn't seen him for a few months, but he usually showed up every now and then for either holidays or to celebrate someone's birthday, usually being Neo's at the very least.

"I-It's okay mom, really!" Ruby did her best to feign interest, giving a few swings with the bat to get an idea of how it felt. "I'm sure I'll get into it... eventually..."

"Ruby..." Cinder rubbed her chin trying to think. It was today she revealed THE truth. "You know... You know how you always wanted to see where I worked?"

"Huh! Are you gonna take me to your job?" Ruby asked with excitement. At long last, finally! She was going to see the amazing job her mother had!

"Well it... It's not exactly a specific place really... It's... It's more like-"

"We're thieves, Ruby." Roman stated, much to Cinder's annoyance.

"T... Thieves...?"

Well... that explained some of it. How they afforded great things, how they manged to live in such a fancy apartment all these years, why her mother never brought Ruby to her job or showed her where she worked. Even Ruby wasn't oblivious to the term, though the last thing she ever expected to hear was that her own mother was a thief, a bad guy. A meanie who took things that weren't hers without permission!

Looking back at the bat she was holding, Ruby's hands started shaking as her eyes quivered with fear. "T-That means..." She quickly dropped the bat as she began unzipping her jacket and emptying her pockets. "W-We gotta go apologize for this stuff! We need to go return it right now-"

"Ruby," Cinder kneeled to her daughter's height, holding her by the shoulders to calm her down, "we can't just return these things, sweetie."

"B-But we have to!" Ruby started tearing up. "You always told me stealing was wrong! I shouldn't take things without permission, remember?"

"Wow, aren't you mom of the year?" Roman teased, earning a softer whack from Neo's umbrella as opposed to what Cinder would've done. "Ow!"

"I know sweetie, but-" Cinder tried to say again.

"This makes us bad people, mom!" Ruby cried. "We're gonna be in a lot of trouble unless we apologize right now! Tch... I-I don't wanna go to jail!"

Thanks Roman for making this so much easier... Cinder had no idea how to explain herself now. She was hoping to have a slow, quiet, and peaceful conversation to explain everything down to Ruby, but instead Roman had to go and jump the gun to get right to the point. It's not like Ruby probably would've reacted any better, but at least then she wouldn't be having a panic attack, and more importantly, she would've listened to Cinder before she started crying.

"Look, sweetie, it's... it's not bad!" Cinder stated to Ruby's confusion.

"B-But-" She choked a bit on the tears building up. Cinder could only smile as she wiped the droplets away, still admiring how sincere and honest her daughter wanted to be.

"It's ok. What we're doing here is to... umm... How should I put this?" Cinder paused as she noticed the cue card Neo was quickly holding up from behind Ruby.

-REMEMBER ROBIN HOOD!-

"We're... stealing to make things better, hun." Cinder said with a smile.

"B... Better?" She definitely wasn't sure of what her mother was saying, but she did appear to be calming down somewhat.

One of the old classic stories she always loved to listen to were the heroic adventures of a Faunus named Robin Hood, a bird Faunus who would steal treasures and riches from the rich and give them to the poor. She was one of the few thieves Ruby's always looked up to, because she wasn't stealing for her own benefit, but to make the world a better place!

So did this mean her mother was Robin Hood too? Didn't you have to be a bird to have the job?

"Yes, sweetie. You see... um..."

"It's a business." Roman interrupted again as he walked forward. Thankfully he seemed more inclined to actually helping this time instead of just rushing things and making it worse.

"A... Business? How is this a business?"

Not only did Roman seemed to be on top of things, but Neo appeared to be helping him as she showed a different picture with each step of his explanation. The first one he pointed to with his cane showed a simple drawing of two stick-figured robbers getting shot by nearly a dozen stick-figured cops.

"Yeah, just think about it. You want to steal to help other people, right? But if you don't have the right equipment, the police and jacka- ahhh... Jackalopes-" It was definitely odd seeing Uncle Roman suddenly talk about Jackalopes all of a sudden, but Ruby wasn't seeing the threatening palms of fire Cinder was showing from behind her. She didn't want Ruby to learn any colorful language until she was at least a teenager, hopefully an adult. "-will just keep shooting ya and make things difficult, right?"

"Y-Yeah...?" Ruby's sadness was slowly being replaced with curiosity as she understood little by little.

"Soooo," Roman paused as Neo switched to the next picture, this time showing several robbers running away with bags of money, "first you steal from small places to get the money and supplies you need." The next picture Neo switched to showed the same crooks, but this time piloting some sort of giant robot suit like you'd see from a cartoon.

"Then, you use that money and stuff to get better equipment you need for the more dangerous heists with better treasure," the third picture Neo switched to showed the crooks breaking into a highly defended building with their robot suits while showing all the guards running away with fear, "and use that equipment to get better things." The final picture showed the crooks in robotic suits dropping piles upon piles of money on some homeless looking people with smiles on their faces. "Finally, you can use that money to give to the poor people who need it."

And just for illustration purposes, Neo showed the last picture showing the two crooks literally standing on the world, with dozens of people around it cheering for them with a large star in the background. "And that alone makes you a hero!"

"Wooooow!" Ruby was completely taken with the explanation, much to both Cinder's and Neo's delight. Cinder owed Roman big time for being able to put together such a grand explanation to such a little child. With a curious look on her face, Ruby looked back to Cinder once again. "So... does that mean you're a hero, mom?"

"That's right, dear." Cinder nodded. "We only steal to help people, nothing more."

The best of lies were truths mixed with the lies and this was no exception. In one-hundred percent fairness, this wasn't technically a lie. The partnership they had with the White Fangs at the time were indeed for a good cause. They needed support and funding for their campaigns and protests for equal rights for their people. While only a handful knew of the mischievous methods of obtaining the money, the leaders, the Belladonnas, made sure it was all to further the cause of their great people. Not one cent of it was meant to go to waste, nor personal gain.

The only thing they didn't know was how far the thieves of this town went to support their cause. At worst, the leaders thought it would've resulted in a simple bank robbery, but even they were unaware of what methods the group used to acquire their goods and currency. On top of that, they were also unaware of the larger plans Cinder had in store, ones she had yet to share with even Roman of all people. Only Neo knew for the time being, having dropped in unannounced to Salem's domain, and one day she hoped to let Ruby know.

But that was still a few years away.

"So...you're being bad to be good?" Ruby asked again.

"Yeah kid." Roman nodded. "I mean, there wouldn't even be police if it weren't for us. They'd be out of a job, unable to support their families, we provide a way to help them make a living. So really, we're secretly the cops best friends!"

"But..." Ruby frowned as she looked back at the bat again. "Isn't it still illegal or something?"

"Isn't what Robin Hood did illegal?" Cinder reminded with a smile, putting Ruby's coat back on.. "She always stole things illegally, but she made it better by the end of it, right?"

"Uh huh," Ruby nodded smiling too, "she took a lot of things from greedy people, but she always helped everyone around her."

"That's right. We're doing nothing more than helping people sweetie. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Cool... but what does this have to do with the bat then?" That was the underlining question behind everything.

"Well, sweetie... how would you like to be like us?" Cinder offered.

"Like you...Like Robin Hood?!" Ruby exclaimed with excitement. The calming nod from Roman behind her and the exciting nod Neo was giving her were confirming her wonder, She just didn't know they were lying. "Y-Yeah! I wanna be Robin Hood too!"

"Oooh, that makes me so happy to hear, hun!" Cinder gleamed as she hugged her daughter tightly. This worked better than she could've hoped. As opposed to having a long and strenuous meeting about the ethics behind all this, Ruby was bought by one simple line: To be just like Robin Hood. In honesty, it was nothing short of luck that she read those stories to Ruby when she was growing up, just picking stories at random each night to read to her. "In that case sweetie, it's time for your first lesson." She announced as she and Roman backed away from the open area.

"Lesson?" Ruby wondered. Looking ahead of her once more, she realized she and Neo were the only ones standing out in the open area of the warehouse. Both Cinder and Roman were standing against the walls ready to observe.

"Yes dear. I want you to hit Neo." Ruby was taken aback by the blatant objective.

"What?!" Ruby didn't know what was more surprising; how her mother just told her to attack her sister with the bat, or how casually Neo was just smiling as she waved at her, umbrella at the ready like all times. "Why would I want to hurt sissy?"

"It's your first lesson, kid." Roman began to explain. "You're gonna be fighting a lot of people like guards and everything, and they won't think twice about hurting an innocent little girl no matter what reason she has for stealing."

"Yeah but..." This was still too insane. She had a a very blunt, hard, metal bat in her hands, and she was expected to hit her dear sister with it! This wasn't like some of her past parties where she was going to whack the pinata and wait for candy to pop out, this was her freaking sister! She didn't even want to imagine what sort of things would spill out of her if she whacked her hard enough.

"You only have to hit her once, Ruby." Cinder stated.

"Huh? Just once?" She wasn't entirely sure if that was supposed to make her feel any better. Then again, pinatas were pretty soft in comparison to a human skull, and her sister was almost half as tough as her mama! So if that was the case, there was no way a simple little bat swing was gonna hurt her dear sister... right? "But still. It's gonna hurt, isn't it?"

Looking back at Neo, the older girl simply smiled as she tapped the top of her head in an almost-taunting gesture. Ruby seriously had no idea what to do at this point. She wanted to be a Robin Hood like her mama and Uncle Roman, and she if her mama was a hero, then she wanted to be just like her! But why on Remnant would they try to make her a Robin Hood like this?

Did they want her to actually kill Neo? Was that what they were asking? Did they want her to just beat her in a fight? They roughhoused a few times around the house as they grew up, all for fun of course, but it was never anything like this. There was only one time Ruby got hurt when she banged her head on the coffee table and cried, but that was back when she was four. Even then, it only hurt for a few minutes and healed quickly.

She didn't take a bat to the face and see how long it took the swelling to ever go down.

"I don't... I don't wanna hurt sissy." She whined.

"She's not going to hurt, sweetie." Cinder assured. As to whether or not that was true was hard to tell. Out of all of Roman's goonies there was nobody stronger than Neo. Maybe the girl herself was even stronger than Roman. She could recount several times when Neo got in a fight with one of the goons, whether to train them in, or to punish one of them for hurting Ruby in some way.

Not once did anyone ever land a single hit on her. And that was before she was even 11!

"She'll be fine, right Neo?" Cinder clearly asked, earning a nod from the teenager 13-year-old sibling.

"Well... if you're sure..." Ruby breathed deeply to herself before holding the bat before her. She wanted to be like mama. She wanted to be like Uncle Roman. She wanted to be just like her older sister!

This was it! She was going to begin her very first lesson today! All she had to do was strike her dear older sister anywhere! She was on her way to becoming the next Robin Hood! Soon they would be calling her "Robin Ruby", telling tales of her exploits as she travelled the glove, stealing from people to help other people in need!

Except for the people she stole from of course.

"Hiyaaaaaaaa!" Ruby screamed as she jumped in the air, lunging right for her older sibli-

*clang*

"Huh?"

*WHACK*

"Ow!" Ruby let out a cry as she fell to the ground, yelping out of pain from the blunt object that collided to the back of her head. "That really hurt..." Ruby sniffled as she teared up. In a matter of a few seconds, Neo skillfully dodged to the side of Ruby's obvious attack, causing her to hit the ground with a solid thud of her metal bat, and struck her on the back of her head with her own umbrella. It surprised her how much the umbrella of hers truly hurt. If it wasn't some secret state-of-the-art weapon, then Neo managed to inflict major pain on with what should've been a relatively soft weapon.

For a brief moment, behind Ruby's back, Neo's face almost displayed concern for the young girl before quickly shrugging it off. "Mama, she hit me!" Ruby cried.

It pained her all the same, but she couldn't relent. "I'm sorry sweetie, but this is part of the exercise." She said.

"Out there, the cops won't hesitate to bludgeon you out cold." Roman added. "If you break down into tears after one simple hit, you're not gonna be able to steal-... You're not gonna be able to help everyone around you if you can't get any riches."

"Mmh..." Ruby moaned. She didn't like getting hit, but she absolutely refused to let her mommy or Uncle Roman down, not to mention her sister. With a puff of her cheeks, grasping her grand weapon of awesomeness once more, she stood at the ready! "Ok... I'm ready."

"Thatta girl." Roman grinned before turning his attention to Cinder. "If they're gonna be practicing, we should head back to business." He said taking his leave.

"Alright. Sweetie, I have to go to work now." She said a she kneeled down to her.

"You mean... thief work?" It still hurt Cinder a little just watching Ruby say that. She knew the girl was still struggling to come to terms with what her mom and uncle were doing, but this really was for the best, their best at that.

"It's not bad work, Ruby." She replied patting her head. "Always remember that."

"Ok... love you bunches!" She chirped before concentrating again.

"Heh, love you bunches too." She gave a quick kiss to the cheek as she turned to leave. "Oh and Neo?" She quietly spoke grabbing her attention. "Try and take it a little easier on her, please." A confirmed nod was all she needed from the mute girl to feel at ease.

Taking a pause as she reached the exit, she looked back at her darling angel. There she was, training for the day she would be at her mother's side fighting for her life. It was times like this she wondered if she was really ready to join in their world, but after today she reached the point of no return. She was going to grow up to Cinder's greatest weapon, her greatest joy. Soon she would be working on her first heist, her first mission, and, perhaps one day, her first assassination mission.

She would be her right hand.

...

If she could ever land a hit on Neo.

"Huff... Huff..." Ruby sighed with exhaustion as she took a break.

Six hours straight. For the last six hours she was trying to hit her dear sister with all her might, all her strength, and all her awesome Robin Hood Powers, and not once did she manage to strike Neo. The ice-cream girl was just too good! Everytime Ruby nearly got the drop on her, she simply sidestepped again and whacked Ruby over the head with either her fist or her umbrella. The worst of times, she was kicked away.

She was getting slightly better at it though. Over time she started predicting what moves Neo was going to use and where she was going to strike from if Ruby missed her mark. But even then, that only resulted in her blocking the oncoming assault with her tiny arms, or Neo kicking at her legs. You would've thought Ruby just came out of a horror show if she saw the exhaustion and sweat dripping from her face.

It took nearly half the time before Ruby stopped crying after each hit. Either she was starting to get used to being struck by Roman's Righthand girl, or Neo was softening each blow till she stopped crying.

Or her limbs and head were going numb from the numerous strikes, one of the two.

And each time she struck Ruby, Neo herself felt nothing but concern and worry for herself. She loved Ruby as her own little sister, fake or not, so being forced to literally beat her each time she messed up was one of the hardest and worst things she ever had to do to her! But it was probably the best scenario in this situation. If Roman or one of his goons were assigned to do this, they definitely wouldn't hesitate to use harder force with each strike, so at least this way she could tell the hits were being softer than they could've been.

If they beat her too harshly, she was going to break down into a crying mess, scarring her for life and from wanting any part of her future. And don't even get her started on what Cinder would've done to them too. Ruby was lucky enough to have the few bruises here and there on her body which Cinder hopefully wouldn't mind. Any idiot who would beat her harder was going to be walking with a limp for the next week at best.

At least now the two could take a break. Being around 3 o'clock, Neo found it appropriate to have a small lunch break, enjoying some sandwiches and cookies Cinder brought along for the workout. Unfortunately it was kind of hard to enjoy herself when Ruby just frowned at the sandwich.

"Mmmh..."

This was basically torture for the teenager. No parent should ever tell two siblings to fight like this even if it wasn't to the death, especially if one was more skilled in combat than the other. Yet if she didn't do this, Ruby would have no idea what the real world was like when they entered their line of work. She thought she was being bad? Try getting beaten to near-death by a policeman!

Still, it was distressing to see her dear sister so depressed like this, so with a small smile she quickly wrote on her cue cards again.

-YOU'RE GETTING BETTER :)!-

"Huff..." Ruby just sighed as she nibbled on her sandwich again.

Ok this was bad. Usually Neo's encouragement always worked, at least with Ruby, so this was a depression on a whole nother level. She tried again.

-YOU'LL GET THE HANG OF IT SOON :D!-

Once again, Ruby just sniffled as she continued to eat. Now the depression was getting to Neo herself. She knew Cinder wouldn't have minded if she never managed to land a hit on her by the end of the day, they were expecting this to possibly take over a week at least. But just seeing her so depressed like this was unbearable! There was only one possible way to encourage her at a time like this, the one weapon in Neo's arsenal that never failed!

-WHEN YOU WIN, WE'LL CELEBRATE WITH COOKIE CAKE ^_^!-

"Eh... I don't know..."

It failed.

Oh dear god almighty it actually failed. The one thing that would always snap Ruby out of it, the one surefire way to always brighten Ruby's spirits, had completely flopped. If Cookie Cake wouldn't work, it was impossible. There was no force on Remnant powerful enough to brighten her spirits at this point if the all godly power of the cake wouldn't work.

With a silent sigh to herself, she smiled once more. Grabbing Ruby's hand, she pulled her over to the center of the warehouse where they trained for the last several hours, turning to her once more with a hearty-looking smile.

"What now?" Ruby asked slightly moaning. It excited Neo thinking of how happy this was going to make her. So with a grin, she bowed over till her head was leveled right at Ruby's height, plain and simple and out in the open before her. "...What?" Ruby blinked in confusion as she tried to figure out what her sister was suddenly doing. Picking up the bat at her feet, she gave it to the seven-year-old once more before bowing, patting her head to signal. "You... You want me to hit you?" Ruby actually perked up a little at this while Neo gave her a simple thumbs up, still bowed over.

This would be amazing! She could hit her sister over the head, get the strike she needed to complete this training. Her mommy would be proud of her, she could finish her training for the day, and they could all go home happily! So, with a cheeky grin, Ruby raised the bat as she gripped it tightly. Neo would be fine, her aura would protect her from most of the force, even if it wasn't that strong at her current age. Plus, even if it did injure her somewhat, she could easily rest the next couple days over once this was done!

It was perfect!

"Haaa!" Ruby breathed deeply as she swung down with full force. She would defeat the villain, make her mommy proud, and be well on her way to calling herself the next Robin Hood!

...And yet, she didn't. Barely a foot away from her head, Ruby came to a grinding halt as she looked at the scene before her. She was forced to fight her sister, at least make a single strike against her once, and that would result in her being closer to being the next Robin Hood, right?

No, that wasn't right! Robin Hood was a fellow hero, she only stole from the rich people and never harmed anyone innocent or poor. Even when she did, she always just wore them down, never injuring them lethally or fatally. She would always just run and hide, sneak and steal, and give and help. She would never stoop so low as to cheating or making things easier for herself like this.

Thus, with a moaning sigh, Ruby just walked away again as she went back to the nearby basket to eat her sandwich. It took Neo several seconds before she opened her eyes again, realizing that Ruby left her to eat again. With a concerned look, she ran over to the siblings side as she hastily kneeled over and wrote on her cards once more.

-WHAT'S WRONG? HIT ME!-

"Nooo..." Ruby groaned.

-WHY NOT?-

"Cause it's cheating, sis." Ruby sniffed. "I want to be a strong person like mommy or Uncle Roman, and if they're thieves I doubt they cheat either." That was partly true in Roman's case, entirely in Cinder's case. He wasn't afraid of fighting one on one against people, usually having Neo by his side just in case, but he wasn't above using underhanded tactics either if it was necessary. "I don't wanna be the hero who cheats in all her fights!" She continued to cry. "I wanna be strong like you and mommy and everyooooone!" She sobbed.

It was too much to Neo to watch. She could only embrace Ruby in a tight hug as she cried into her chest.

The stress was indefinitely taking it's toll on Ruby, and perhaps Neo herself seeing how she just offered to let Ruby bludgeon her to possible-death. All the hours they were fighting, she didn't hit her once. Through all the encouragement and help she tried to provided, Ruby didn't smile. No matter what she offered or tried to assist with, Ruby just cried. This was too much for any child to take!

It wasn't fair! She was expected to go from sweet innocent girl to notorious Robin Hood out of nowhere, before she even became a teen at that! Being a kid meant you should be able to enjoy your life for a good while, not go about with odd jobs or working and studying for the rest of your miserable life. That's what being an adult was for!

But what was she supposed to do? Ruby wouldn't try to cheat or anything, wanting to take the honorable route, and she knew the stress of being unable to hit Neo was more irritating than the hits Ruby herself was taking. She couldn't go slower or Ruby would be able to tell, and she couldn't hit her any softer because she needed to toughen her up for the real world.

it was only after another minute of her crying did Neo give a small smile again, releasing the girl once more as she wrote in her cue cards.

-NEED DIFFERENT STRATEGY!-

"Different, sniff, strategy?" Ruby asked confused. She just watched as she wrote again in her cue cards, wishing times like these she would just learn to talk instead.

-YOU'RE TOO DIRECT! USE BRAINS INSTEAD \^_^/ !-

"Use brains...?" Within another few seconds, Neo wrote on her last Cue Card. The picture she showed was definitely weirder compared to the other direct messages, but Ruby actually got the idea of it thanks to her years with sis and learning her sign language.

It took the form of what appeared to be a pyramid scheme as it showed the word "Strength" on top, the word "Brains" on the bottom left, and the word "Speed" on the bottom right. All of these were in a small square outline surrounding each of them, and at the edge of each one, they displayed a single arrow that circulated clockwise, so the Strength was pointing to Skill, Skill was pointing to Brains, and Brains was pointing to Strength. To anyone else, said picture would be nothing but confusing.

To the younger sibling though, she understood perfectly.

Strength overpowered anyone fast or skillful enough to strike the opponent multiple times. They could take as many hits as necessary while the strong fighter only needed to land a single hit. However, they were easy to overcome if you had the brains behind it, whether it came down to trickery or using their own strength against them.

A skillful fighter was fast and dexterous. They could act with lightning-fast reflexes faster than a brain-buzzling fighter could react! They would strike fast and furious while the thinker in the fight would be too overwhelmed and busy keeping up with them. By the time they could put together a plan, it would already be too late. But it was a different story if they fought anyone stronger and burly. No amount of hits would be able to topple them.

And then there was the brains. The pros to fighting a stronger fighter was that they usually waited for the opponent to make the first move, or they moved too slow giving the smarter fighter an easier time to dodge their hits and learn their fighting style. With how slow the heavy fighters were, the smarter guy would see their attacks coming from a mile away while planning their own counters lickitysplit. However, against a fighter who kept them off their toes, their unpredictability made it more than impossible to keep up with them.

This was the pyramid scheme that made up the three types of fighters, the rock-paper-scissors formation. It was the key element of every fighter in Remnant, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. And even at her young age, Ruby understood it perfectly.

"So... Don't use just strength... right?" Ruby questioned rubbing her chin. Neo nodded enthusiastically, glad she was getting it. She needed to think of a different way to beat her sister that didn't involve direct confrontation and relied more on either skill or her own brains. And since her sister was obviously the second smartest person in the whole world, the first being her own mommy, she either needed a much smarter idea or find someway to outspeed her sister.

"..."

"..."

"...Huh! I got it!" Ruby said with excitement. As opposed to just telling her, which would've ruined things if she told her what to expect, she just went back to eating her sandwich. But to Neo's enjoyment, she was smiling once more as she ate enthusiastically instead of moping around each bite. She had a solid plan or a solid technique she was about to unleash, and Neo couldn't wait to check it out.

About ten minutes after the heart-to-heart, and a brief bathroom break, the girls found themselves in the middle of the warehouse once more. Ruby seemed more focused than ever to defeat her sister once and for all! Or at least hit her once to finally end this training exercise early. Neo had to admit even she was excited and curious what her little sis had in store for her.

"I'm gonna do it, sis. I'm gonna hit you once and for all!" Ruby stated proudly. Neo just gave her an excited grin as she gave her the thumbs up.

With one deep breath, she charged. It was a bit suspicious for Ruby to just run up and charge her once more, as if she hadn't taken anything Neo wrote for granted, but she prepared for it all the same. Maybe her idea was to wear her sister down, or maybe it was to test her reactions, the ideas created by a young girl were endless!

Just like before, Ruby lunged in the air, bat over her head, ready to strike her foe with full force and ferocity likes the which the Universe would never see coming! Or at least everything and everyone except Neo herself. It was a bit concerning as to whether or not Ruby actually learned anything after the last few minutes of sobbing, but if she was going to do something she needed to do it now before Neo just dodged aga-

"Mommy?"

?

*WHAM!*

She did it. She has done it! SHE FINALLY DID IT!

With a solid thud, Neo fell to her back as the large bump to her head formed, a notable indentation on the bat from where she struck. It might've been a bit of a cheap tactic in some cases, but honestly it was the best thing she could come up with. Her sis was too tough to overpower, and too skillful to outmaneuver or outrun. Because of this, that only lead Ruby to the one logical conclusion in defeating her evil sister once and for all: She had to distract her long enough, a split second in this case, to make her strike!

And there was no better distraction she could think of than pretending her mother returned from wherever she was while looking in the same direction, making Neo actually think she had returned. And that one second she turned away was all it took to win the day!

"I did it...hehehe..." Ruby couldn't help but shake in a mad fit of giggles as she felt victorious. It wasn't exactly a cheap way to win, seeing how her only objective was to strike her sister, nor was it cheating since her sister surpassed her in all fields. It was a fair trick concocted by the all powerful little Ruby and her awesome brain of awesomeness! "I did it!" She cheered raising her bat to the sky. "I beat my sister!"

Those few seconds of absolute pride and dignity slowly vanished into nothing but despair and horror, pupils shrinking in fear. "...Oh my god I just beat my sister!" Ruby squeaked as she ran over to Neo's side, lifting her up by her head. "Sissy, wake up! I'm sorry!"

"What's going on here?" Cinder asked as she truly showed up, Roman following in behind her. She was all but baffled to see the scene of the tearful Ruby next to her bludgeoned sibling.

"Mommy, I just killed sissy!" Ruby cried as Cinder rushed over.

She could tell at first glance, what with the swirls in her eyes and her twitching fingers, that Neo was fine. But for the girl who inflicted the possibly massive head injury to her one and only sibling, she thought she just killed her older sister. It wasn't fair! If Ruby knew she was so much tougher than her older sister she would've gladly hit her less hard! Why was fate so cruel?!

At the same time, Roman could only look on in disbelief. "No freaking way..." He muttered.

Goon. Goons. Cops. Security. Robots. Not once had anything ever managed to hit Neo before. She was practically a ghost for the way she managed to casually slip through everyone's fingers whenever they tried to hit her, and a viper that stung back tenfold with each and every attack shot against her. Even managing to hit a simple illusion of hers was hard if she managed to get the drop on you ahead of time!

So that just meant this Ruby had done the impossible. She not only completed her first lesson of trying to hit her fake sister, she managed to do it literally weeks ahead of schedule. They weren't expecting results this quickly, certainly not in the same day at least, and if Ruby's crying was any indication he could tell Neo didn't just let her hit her on purpose.

Ruby Fall. The girl who managed to do what almost no one else has ever accomplished. As a fake uncle, he couldn't help but grin impressed.

"The kid's got skill after all..."

...

...

...

 _ **A/N: Annnnnnnnnd another fun chapter posted ^^. I gotta tell you guys, i'm excited. Why am I excited? Because we're close. We're less than a week's worth of chapters away from reaching the first Volume of Rwby with this fanfic, and I for one am excited X)!**_

 _ **It doesn't mean I'll end with the adorable shenanigans, don't worry about that :P I'll make some snippets here and there while working on the main series, or if someone has a great idea for an episode taking place during Ruby's growing-up-life, i'll be sure to do that too. But either way, we're nearly at the starting point of Volume one. I for one am so excited X).**_

 _ **Perhaps the only thing I'm more excited for... is... well... I'll tell you guys at the end of the next chapter X).**_

 _ **Oh and early warning- next chapter will be shorter. Not due to laziness or anything, just can't think of much other than what happens :/**_


	20. A Farewell Between Sisters

_**A/N: No frets people, word count is at nearly 6.4k words before the author notes. And posting bright and early just for my extra special fans out there :P!**_

 _ **I'll be honest, I'm surprised I got as much as this ^^ I honestly thought it was gonna be at around 3-4k, maybe 5k at the most, yet here it is! I managed to push out an average sized chapter ^^!**_

 _ **Also i apologize if my writing is a little off on here- while it didn't end up being shorter like I partially expected, it was still a little off as I tried to think up the chapter here and there. hopefully it won't be too noticeable or distracting.**_

 _ **So enjoy!**_

 _ **...**_

 _ **...**_

 _ **...**_

"Ugh, where is she...?" Ruby moaned as she sprawled along her companion's back.

It had been another tiring year for the 8-year-old girl. Life's stayed the same, their home has stayed the same, it was the same old same old. Her sister got newer clothes, her mom has a few new outfits here and there, even the morning bathtime they all shared was starting to get a little boring to her. Everything had just stayed the same from start to finish! Well, except for one thing that is.

Ruby had been training to become a full-fledged thief, and Cinder's right hand weapon and daughter. Since the day Ruby turned seven, she had been training rigorously to be just like her mom, a thief, a skilled fighter, a secret-agent of justice! Or at least that's how Roman displayed themselves to her, making it look like what they did was not only necessary, but also helping everyone around them. It was on this day she learned that being evil was a necessity, and being evil meant she was truly on the side of heroes and justice.

Once again, at least that's how Roman made themselves look. He had quite a persuasive tongue, convincing the young Ruby that stealing was fine as long as it helped everyone around them, even going as far as to use her love for the tale of Robin Hood on her. How could Ruby not be suckered in with the tales she grew up with!

Her training regime usually consisted of several different lessons from hand-to-hand combat, learning about different strengths and weaknesses, how to outwit your opponent and fight in different environments, and basic training from running laps and doing pull-ups and push-ups. With her tutor scheduled to see her Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, Tuesdays and every other weekend was used to train Ruby physically. As for Fridays, those and the days Ruby's family met with the Belladonnas were for relaxation. They didn't want to overwork their angel after all.

It was also during this training regime that Ruby finally discovered her true semblance, not the fake one she displayed by having a virtually living "shadow", which was actually just a Grimm Wolf. It happened while Ruby and Neo were running laps back and forth in the warehouse. They decided to change it up a bit by adding a game of tag to each other just for kicks so they could at least enjoy themselves while working. Unfortunately, right around this time, six months after her training began, did Ruby's semblance kick in.

While in the midst of tag, being the young girl's turn to tag Neo, she found herself suddenly feeling lighter as she was filled with, what she thought was, a burst of adrenaline. With one large burst of speed, disappearing into a spiral of colorful red petals, Ruby found herself skyrocketing into Neo's back, both girls crashing through several several large wooden containers in the process and knocking the duo out cold.

At least Ruby had somewhat of a shield the size of her sister.

Since then, having seen what occurred thanks to the warehouse's security cameras, Cinder had pushed Ruby through more of her running, reigniting that semblance over and over again until it finally became second nature. More and more Ruby continued to please her mother everyday, praising her and her many accomplishments, as well as everything Ruby had been doing up to this point. Within the next few years, she was positive she would be ready for her first real heist.

Speaking of growth, Wolfie continued to surprise Cinder each and every month. Being a little over two years now, the dog was massive. It wasn't the size of a German Shepard, it wasn't the size of a Great Dane, this thing was nothing but massive in comparison to those things, including the one she guarded on a daily basis. At this point in time, the dog was the size of a large couch. No, not in height or width. The dog actually stretched from one end of the large couch to the other, being at least the size of a full-sized car by this point in time. It was practically twice Ruby's size by this point, it's head was now at the same height as Cinder herself!

And it was still growing!

Thankfully, regardless of whatever size it took, it was easy to conceal. It's own shadow could be hundreds of times bigger than Ruby's, yet it could always disperse into Ruby's own shadow with ease. It would be all but impossible to keep such a massive beast hidden otherwise, much less get it out of the room if it was too big for the doorway.

Even more thankfully, it hasn't lost it's true purpose. Like Salem said, it was nothing but protective of Ruby like she was her own cub since the day Ruby received her. It could tell the difference between Neo, Cinder, Blake and her parents, and Roman himself from any other of Roman's goods, possibly due to the scent Ruby's presence left them with after all the years growing up together. But no one ever wanted to be alone with the eight-year-old girl even more than before now, at least any of the henchmen working for Roman.

There was an incident several months ago with one of the goons getting full of themselves and somehow managed to convince the little Ruby they could spar since it was nothing more than training. In truth, the scumbag was looking for nothing more than an excuse to smack the face of the little devil that caused so much hassle for him and his fellow goonies in the past. Naturally, like she usually was anyway, Neo was at the scene to look out for her, reluctantly agreeing to it after much pleading from the little Ruby.

While Ruby actually had enough training to gain the upperhand here, to the jerk's surprise, all he needed was one good strike to her face with the tip of his hard leather boots, knocking the child to the ground with a part of a black eye and a bleeding nose, leaving Ruby in nothing more than a crying fit as her entire face was flushed with pain. Blood dripped from her nose, she could feel some of it build up in the back of her throat, and her entire face was contorted in pain. She had never experienced so much pain at once before that even trying to rub it herself and Neo's peaceful presence, quicking running over to the injured sibling, did nothing to soothe her.

And the jerkoff knew he couldn't possibly get into trouble because this nothing more than a "spar" which Ruby herself agreed to, as well as Neo since she only allowed it within her supervision. He started getting full of himself wondering if he could possibly pin this whole issue on Neo herself! After all, she was the older sibling and was more responsible for Ruby while everyone else was away. If things worked out as perfectly as he expected, he could get off of this scot-free while a teenager who kicked his butt in past training multiple times would suffer for it!

That was about the last ounce of hopeful thinking he ever managed to grasp from this situation, as no sooner when he finished, he found himself suddenly being tackled and ravaged by the dangerous Wolf who had been hiding in Ruby's shadow this whole time. Feeling it's cub's emotions and pain, it did what any protective mother would do as it assaulted the helpless jerk to no end. By the time Cinder, Roman, and Neo managed to pry the wolf off of him, it was already too late. He was nothing more than a bloody mess to them, barely alive as he hoarsely cried in agony over his own injuries and bitten-off right leg.

Ruby herself never saw the man again since he kicked her, having been removed from the room by Cinder in order to deal with the dog. As for Roman himself, he did the only thing a scumbag like man before him deserved: he had him dropped off into the middle of a Grimm-infested forest.

Roman was a crook, he would never deny that. But, whether it was his own morals or something that grew from spending too much time with Ruby and Neo, he was absolutely above injuring children like that. Kidnapping and hostages, sure, that was fine. But being so smug as to try and get away with beating on another kid and pin the blame on another one, especially his right-hand girl? That was going too far.

Besides, it's not like they really had any options in this case. The alternative was either healing him themselves, something they couldn't due to the lack of supplies they had, or bring him to a hospital which was completely out of the question since he knew too much. Even if he didn't, there was no way he would've kept silent if it meant not getting back at the little brat that did this to him.

But this was all still more merciful than what Cinder would've done to him. She had no choice but to lie to Ruby about what happened to him, saying he apologized and went off to a different thief-related job to do more work. She didn't want her young one thinking she was possibly responsible for a man's near death, at least not this young in her life.

Thus, the gang could be seen hanging around their penthouse once more. With the young Ruby playing on her Scroll while resting on the massive wolf's back, Neo flipping channels back to back out of sheer boredom, Roman who took the day off to pay a visit, and a motherly Cinder who simply hummed to herself as she cooked some spaghetti for the evening's dinner.

"They'll be here soon, hun." Cinder assured as she stirred the noodles. "Do you have any plans today?"

"Yeah, I wanna take Blake over to the arcade!" Ruby smiled back, rolling onto her stomach. "They have this new virtual reality shooter thing, it's all the rage these days!"

"You know if you really want hands-on experience with guns, you could stop by the warehouse ya know." Roman commented, swigging down another small glass of wine. "We got plenty lying around you could practice with."

"I don't want her anywhere near real guns, Roman." Cinder muttered back with a small groan.

"Hey, in our line of works she's going to be dealing with guns one way or another." Roman retorted, "It's best to get her exposed to them so she can practice being on the delivering end instead of the receiving end you know."

"Eh, thanks for the offer anyway Uncle Roman, but that's fine." Ruby replied. "After the arcade we plan on heading to the movies to see the new animated movie that came out! I heard it's really good!"

"Alright sweetie, but-"

"I know, I know," Ruby cut off Cinder mid-sentence, "we'll be bringing big sis too." At this, the older sibling have a silent cheer as she raised a thumbs-up.

*knock*

*knock*

*knock*

"Oh, that must be them." Cinder said walking over to the door. "Ruby, Wolfie?"

"Huff, fine." Ruby smiled down to her pet as she pat it's back. "Ok girl, back to the shadow, ok?" With a brief lick back, the wolf disappeared into the floor slowly as it entered Ruby's small shadow once more.

The Belladonnas were aware of Ruby's shadow by this point, but that was under two false pretenses. One, Cinder had told them the wolf itself was nothing more than Ruby's semblance. That was a lie they could buy easily until Ruby actually discovered her semblance several weeks later. That's why it was so imperative for Ruby to master using her semblance at will, just like summoning the wolf in and out of her shadow like second nature.

The second issue was the wolf's size. It was hard just trying to convince them the Grimm-like mask on it's face was nothing more than how it appeared, and since the wolf was at Ruby's size at the time it was easy to pass on the idea it just grew along with Ruby. With it having nearly doubled in size since though, there was no way Blake's parents wouldn't find this suspicious.

Patting her clothes briefly free of dust, Cinder briefly took a deep breath as she smiled, preparing to greet their allies once more. "It's nice to see you again-" Cinder suddenly paused. There was no one there, at least not at eye-level like she was usually greeted with. Instead, she could only look down at the ten-year-old Blake who greeted her, wearing her black backpack as usual when they came over with her head down. "Blake?" Nothing but worry filled Cinder's mind as she returned her gaze with a small frown.

By this point in her life, Blake had grown till she was at least up to Cinder's thigh in height, several inches taller than Ruby, and a good foot under Neo.

"Hey... Miss Fall." She greeted glumly. Blake dug through her skirt pockets for a few seconds before handing her a letter.

"Blake... Sweetie, where are your parents?" The sight of the letter she took filled her with nothing but dread, fearing for whatever bad news it had to offer.

"They're... they're not coming..." She mumbled stepping inside. "Is Ruby here?"

"Blake!" Ruby giggled excitedly as she ran up to hug her. "I missed you! You ready to go to the arcade?" Ruby's excitement slowly dwindled as she noticed the sad look in her eyes. She was just staring back at her, empty and without emotion, and unable to figure out what to say. She just stared at Ruby with a solemn expression on her face. "Blake? Is... Is something wrong."

"Ruby, I... we need to talk." She quickly stated as pulled Ruby's hand, taking her to Ruby's room before shutting the door tightly. It was under these few seconds of confusion that both Roman and Neo looked back between the confusing scene and the letter Cinder began opening.

"The heck was that about?" Roman asked, earning nothing but a shrug from Neo. Glancing over at Cinder, he watched as her expression slowly changed from deepening concern to nothing but irritation and anger.

"...No...Noooo...Aw god-! Nnnnghhhh!" Cinder grumbled as she leaned on the counter, pulling her hair. She could't believe it. She could not believe it! It had to either be some cruel joke from Blake's parents or just a really bad dream.

Looking back to her own parental figure, Neo watched as Roman grabbed the letter from Cinder's distressed hands. Like Cinder herself, Roman's face slowly changed to one of confused perplexion, slowly changing little by little as his eyes followed each line of the letter piece by piece. By the time he reached the end of his, rage filled his entire demeanor as he quickly jumped from his chair and grabbing his hat.

"God damnit, no!" He cussed rushing out the door as the letter floated to the ground. If he was in as much of a hurry as he appeared, he was going to take the fire escape to avoid security cameras. Figuring nothing was going to make sense of the scene, Neo tensed as she walked her way over to the letter, picking it up as she glanced over it curiously.

What she saw written would explain their reaction.

Dear Ms. Fall,

On behalf of all you've done for us, our people and our family, we wish to extend our deepest gratitude for all you have done, as well as our deepest apology for our recent announcement. We truly cherished all the time we spent together, and the smiling faces of Ruby and Blake every time they met. Each visit we came to, every conversation we spoke in, it made us feel closer than ever to you and your family. Your family will always be one of our own, Faunus or not, and we will always honor that. We will never forget our time together, nor theirs.

But recently, we came across an incident. On the eve of one of our protest rallies, things took a sudden, violent, turn as several of our own people began attacking the surrounding people and those they were protesting to. While we don't know what triggered this sudden act of aggression, we discovered that several pieces of weaponry they were using, as well as dust they had illegally obtained, had come from your own warehouses.

We do not know if you were directly involved or not, or if they were working behind our backs this entire time, but it doesn't change the outcome of this message. After much consideration and thought, we have decided to withdraw as the present leaders of the White Fang. The White Fang, the one we started ourselves, do not condone violence. We don't wish to obtain the equal rights and respect we deserve as a species through violence and fear.

We also don't know who started this inside uprising, but the number of followers they have are too many now to convince them of their wrongdoings. Our only choice to prove to the world we do not support their folly is to step down as the present leaders of the White Fangs. We wish we were stronger, we wish we had the respect needed to convince our followers what they had done was wrong, but our hands are tied. If we continue to try and interfere, they threatened the lives of not just us, but our village as well.

We will not be responsible for the deaths of men, women, and children around us,

We wish we didn't have to tell you this way, but we simply couldn't face you directly about this. Maybe it was fear, maybe it was regret, but we simply couldn't meet. And because of these events, we are withdrawing all present members under your leadership, half of which probably are just using you as we speak.

We apologize once more for this inconvenience. We pray that you were not the ones behind this, we hope you're still good people at heart. But this is where fate has brought to. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for all the wonderful times we had, and the many smiles you brought between our two families. You will always be part of our family.

~With Love, Your Friends,

Kali and Ghira Belladonna.

Now it made sense. It all made sense right down to the punctuation.

Not just the letter, the appearance of Blake alone, or everyone's reactions up to now, but everything.

The Belladonnas are no longer allies of Cinder and her crew, and have sent their only daughter to act as messenger between the two families. Because of some violent rally that may or may not have been caused by Cinder and Roman, Neo herself actually had no idea, they had disbanded any and all help they once sent to their allies. Not only that, but given Roman's reaction, they took any help they provided too. All of their own forces, all of their close allies, gone. It was as much she could gather based on Cinder's and Roman's reactions alone.

What really worried Neo though was what happens now? Not just for themselves, but between Ruby and Blake?

...

...

"You have a nice view from up here." Blake commented as she sat on the rail of Ruby's patio. In truth, it was a pretty nice sight to behold, and now Ruby was older, she at least had a head's length of space to see over the railing now. Granted it still scared her to look straight down, but she was content with the view she had all the same.

"M-Maybe you shouldn't sit up there Blake, it isn't safe." Ruby stuttered as she rubbed her hands.

"Ah, it's fine, I'm hanging on." She replied with a smile, pointing to the tail she had wrapped around the rail just in case. It wasn't as strong as other Faunus' tails like a monkey or something, but with her reflexes she could easily swipe her hand over the railing once more to pull herself back up. "C'mon, sit next to me."

"Mmmh...I... I don't-" Ruby stuttered again.

"It's ok, I got you." She promised. Like always, Ruby was terrified at the thought. Falling from such a great height would've terrified her more than the idea of landing.

But Blake was her sister. Even if not blood-related, she was a sibling all the same. And she trusted her almost as much as her own family. With a deep, nerving breath, she grabbed Blake's hand as she helped her to the railing. She took it nice and slow, one leg at a time until she was sitting right by Blake's side like the friends they were.

Much to Blake's amusement and expectations, Ruby quietly meeped to herself before hugging onto Blake herself, trying to remain secure.

"It's ok, I got you now." She said, patting Ruby's head calmly.

"Sorry, it's just..." Ruby took a moment to gulp. "Heights..."

"Hmm." Blake just looked out to the distance once more.

This was nice. The view was nice. Their bond was nice. And you would think given the scenery before them, you would think they were going to have a nice chat. Even Blake's calming smile was misleading from the events that were about to unfold.

But it had to be done. And she had to know.

"It is a nice view, huh?" Blake asked again. Without the fear of falling, Ruby just looked before her, gazing at the amazing sight she would grow up to see. The world was definitely amazing to the girl who spent majority of her life held up in one location. It made her wonder how large it really was or how small it could be.

"Y-Yeah." As touching as Ruby found the scene, she couldn't help but lean up again as she looked over to Blake, the cat-girl holding her hand for her safety. "So... Shouldn't we head to the arcade? They have that new game we've been wanting to try!" The bright cheery smile Blake started with slowly dwindled to a frown. In itself, it might not have seem like much, but she seeing how happy she was seconds ago and now this just proved something dire was troubling her.

"Ruby, I... I can't." She simply stated.

"Oh...W-Well we can go to the movies later-"

"I can't do that either Ruby." She turned her head away a little.

"Oh... w-well, we don't have to go out or something." Ruby tried to cheer her friend up. "We could just stay home and bake something you know? Ooh! Mom's got some new cooking utensils we could use! We could make a whole bunch of things, cookies, brownies, cakes... Oh! You wanna try making a pizza? We could add tuuunaaaaaa..." That was always the nail that struck Blake's excitement.

But like everything before it, Ruby was met with nothing more than a glum face. "Ruby, I... There's something I have to tell you."

This was bad. Extremely, really, super duper mega ultra bad! Ruby saw this scene hundreds of times in her cartoon shows and movies. Whenever two people got like this, or one of them were being extremely quiet and unsure about something, it was usually followed by something bad.

"W-What... What is it?" She asked nervously. Blake remained silent for few more seconds before replying.

"I... My parents are leaving the White Fang, Ruby." While she couldn't fully understand what that meant, the sad face Blake was showing her proved how bad it was going to get. "Which means we... We won't be able to see each other anymore."

"Huh?!" Ruby's surprised reaction was perfectly expected. Fearing the two might wobble off given the stress of the situation, Blake quickly hopped off with her friend in hand. "B-But why not? We could... we could still form the White Fang thing!"

"Ruby..." It crushed her seeing how positive her friend was trying to remain. The longer she did, the longer she was going to hurt.

"Yeah! We'll both be the new leaders! Since your parents left it, that means you should lead it, I can help you with any paperwork, we can do those protest things, and-"

"I'm not coming back, Ruby." Blake stated firmly. Ruby's heart began to ache at the mention of it. She knew full well what this was going to lead to and what it meant.

"What? B-But... we can still hang out and everything, right? Or maybe you can stay here! We have lots of rooms, my mom can make your favorite meals-"

"I'm not staying here Ruby!"

"Why not?!" Ruby yelled as she teared up. "Who says you can't stay here?! I don't see you for months and now you came all this way just to tell me you're leaving? Why! Why can't you just stay hee...staaa...tch...ahhhahaaaaa..." Ruby began to break down as she cried.

"Ruby..." She had no other option. She could only embrace Ruby in a warm hug as the Faunus herself began breaking silently into tears.

They were sister. The best and one of a kind. From the moment Ruby could barely walk or talk, they were the best of friends. They had numerous fun games with each other, had numerous slumber parties as their parents visited, all except one taking place in Ruby's home, and so many wonderful memories with each other! So why did they have to separate like this?!

It was going to confuse Ruby to no end, but Blake had no choice in the matter. Her parents had left the White Fangs, and if they weren't going to support Cinder's operations anymore, then that meant no more visits to Ruby's home, and that also meant no more paying for tickets for Blake to just take a trip to their continent either. They were going to remain separated for the rest of their days.

Being young as she was, Ruby had yet to understand what told them they couldn't see each other anymore. Of course it was confusing to her childlike mind! The solution seemed so obvious to her that she was beginning to wonder if everyone else was just being stupid! Her parents weren't in the White Fang. Fine. Who cares? What law of the universe told them that because of this, they couldn't hang out anymore? No one! And if some evil universe thing was going to tell her they couldn't hang out, then she would whack it with her bat!

It just wasn't fair!

"I don't..." Ruby sniffled. "I don't want to lose my other sister..." Unlike the previous remarks, Blake actually smiled a little at this as she looked Ruby in the face.

"Ruby, this doesn't mean we can't still be sisters." She replied as she wiped away her own tears.

"Y-Yes it does... sniff... what's the point of being sisters if you're not h...here..."

That was a good point. Part of being sisters meant they could see each other each and every time, so there wasn't really any point being sisters to one another if they never met again.

"I will be though." The confusing statement brought a tiny bit of hope to Ruby as she watched Blake dig through her backpack to fiddle with something.

"What... sniff... what are you doing?" Ruby asked rubbing her eyes.

"Close your eyes for a sec, Ruby." Blake instructed with a smile as she turned her head back.

"But what are you-"

"Just trust me. You'll like it, I promise." She didn't know what to expect, but at the same time she didn't want to disappoint her sister for possibly the last time of their lives. With a heavy heart, she breathed calmly to herself as she closed her eyes. She grew a little more and more curious as she felt Blake doing something around her neck, hearing something click before Blake sighed to herself happily.

"Ok, you can open now."

Upon opening her eyes, she was greeted with the sight of Blake now wearing a small golden pendant, one that was either torn apart just now, or torn away intentionally. Looking back at herself, she noticed she was wearing the exact same thing, with the pendant being ripped apart from the other side.

"What... What is it?" Ruby flipped the pendant about as she observed it.

"It's a symbol of the White Fang." Blake explained, catching her attention. "As long as you wear it around your neck, I'll always be with you, ok?"

"No!" Blake was actually surprised by the reaction as she broke into tears again. What didn't surprise her was Ruby crying into her chest again as she hugged her. "I don't want some necklace thingie, I want my sisterrrrr!" She cried.

"I know Ruby, I know." It really did pain Blake as much as it did Ruby. Maybe even more since she was aware of the reasoning behind all this. Yet she forced herself to press on. If she kept giving into tears like this, she would never be able to live up to the proud name of the White Fangs she still lived for. "But this isn't a goodbye."

The sound of anything hopeful snapped Ruby out of her depression, however brief. "It's... It's not?" She sniffed.

"No," she smiled down again, "I hate goodbyes. This is sorta more of a... see you later, kind of thing."

"See you later?" Ruby repeated.

"Mh hm. We have our whole lives ahead of us, Ruby. There's no telling when we might see each other again." Blake truly didn't know if they ever would meet again. Maybe it was as soon as tomorrow, maybe it was a hundred years from now! But any amount of hope she could give to the young girl would hopefully leave her with a smile upon her departure. "I'm going to wear this everyday, so if we ever meet again, you'll know it's me, ok?"

"B-But..." It still felt wrong. She liked the necklace she gave her, she was far from ungrateful. But why did it have to turn out like this.

"Don't." Blake said putting her finger to Ruby's lips. "The more you try to talk about it, the sadder you're going to be. Just remember I will always be with you, and you'll always be with me, so neither of us will ever be alone. Ok?"

"...Blake..." Ruby teared up again before she embraced Blake in another teary hug. This time, however, Blake could truly tell she was accepting it. "I'm gonna miss you sis..." She cried. Blake took a few moments to compose herself as she felt the tears flowing down her own cheeks.

"I'm gonna miss you too, little sis." She gave her a brief peck on the top of her head, patting it soothingly. "I'll see you later, Ruby."

...

...

Silence. All that was filling the room was silence. Neo was just thinking about how much this would affect Ruby herself while Cinder wondered how this would affect their business. They just announced they were not only withdrawing from the White Fang, but the members themselves were withdrawing from their own organization! All those paid assistance, all those useful helpful workers, gone without further notice.

Not one of them seemed sketchy to her, and she doubt Roman would've done something so stupid to jeopardize their own business. That just left the pondering question of who stole from their warehouses and when.

The creaking of Ruby's door caught Cinder's attention again. For the last fifteen minutes she's been doing everything she could to maintain her kind, sweet demeanor. She wouldn't even think about taking her anger out on Ruby's friend, though any tone she took with her might've said otherwise. It was literally just seconds before Blake came out of her room that Cinder could muster the strength to speak calmly.

"B-Blake, hun," Cinder breathed deeply once more as she semi-forced a small smile, "you don't have to leave right now, you know? You could at least stay for dinner tonight, and I could take you to the airport tomorrow." Sadly, all Blake could do was shake her head in response.

"Sorry Ms. Fall, but I can't." She replied with a respectful bow. "The ticket from my parents were paid to send me back later tonight. I have to head back to the airport pronto." She explained walking over to the door. "It's been a pleasure knowing you, Ms. Fall."

"Well if you ever need a place to stay-" Cinder's offer fell on deaf ears as Blake casually closed the door behind her.

This was tough. This was going to be tough. And it was only going to be tougher in the next few seconds.

*ring*

*ring*

*ri-*

"Hello?" She mumbled answering her scroll.

"God... it's gone Cinder, it's all gone!" Roman could be heard screaming through the scroll.

On his end of things, everything was a disaster. He was looking at a warehouse, one of their warehouses which was fully stocked and furnished with everything they ever needed. Now, it was nothing more than an empty room with a few emptied boxes and only one of two crates of stuff left remaining.

"All that work, all that god damn work and now it's wasted!" He continued to grumble.

All those years. The near-last decade of all that hard work, all the heists they pulled off, all the schemes they hatched together to get to where they were now, and it was all lost. Luckily on Cinder's part, she still had a few hidden stashes across the penthouse itself in cases of emergencies, specifically if she suddenly lost any funding and needed something to pay for the Penthouse's monthly bills.

Those alone would keep them from being kicked out for at least three years at best, assuming other expenses didn't come up by then, and hopefully they would have enough time by then to get operations running again.

However long that was going to take. They were officially back to square one.

The only thing keeping Cinder from literally bursting into flame was the fact she partly expected this after reading the leader. It's something she prayed to herself didn't happen, but with Roman bolting for the door earlier and the sudden call, it was easy to put two and two together.

"Are you sure the other warehouses aren't fine?" Cinder asked trying to be optimistic.

"Am I sure?" He asked sarcastically. "I just called with Jeff and the other guys. Half of them aren't responding to my calls, and the ones who are are saying they've been cleared out too! Those bastards have been playing us since the beginning!"

That was not true. Maybe it was, but Cinder refused to believe it. She shared many moments with Kali and Ghira. Just from the looks in their eyes, seeing the same love for Blake that she did for Ruby, there was no way this was something they would deviously plan, at least not if they had a daughter like Blake. Suffice to say, they had their own bond.

So it only hurt more knowing it was suddenly shattered.

"Look, let's just... let's just calm down for a moment, and-"

"Calm down? CALM DOWN?!" Roman shouted. "CINDER, ALL THAT WORK, ALL THAT DAMN WORK HAS BEEN FOR NOTHING! We can't even pay what lackies we do have remaining, and-"

As Roman continued to ramble on, Cinder looked back as she noticed Neo slowly heading for Ruby's door. With the snap of her finger, she caught Neo's attention before gesturing her to stay away. She felt horrible. She felt sick to her stomach about all the events that played up till now. But she didn't even want to think about how this was affecting her little flower.

The same flower at the time who just cried silently on her bed. Even with it's massive size, Wolfie managed to lie upon the bed easily, a noticeable frown on it's own face as Ruby just lied on it's side. The wolf just lied there as Ruby cried into it's fur silently, looking back at the pendant once more.

It was all she had left. All that she had to remember someone she had a special bond with. Blake. A sister. Her sister. She had no idea when it ever would be, never knowing what day it could be. But she was sure, rubbing the small pendant with her thumb, she was sure to herself that she would see her friend Blake again. But it did nothing to stop the flow of tears that dripped from her cheeks.

"See you later...Blake..."

 ** _..._**

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 ** _A/N: I will admit, I felt a bit emotional while writing this despite the fact I should probably have planned this episode and watched it over and over again in my head. Hopefully tissues weren't needed by the end of this..._**

 ** _Well, we're two chapters away guys ^^! Two chapters away (possibly 3 depending on size, but next bit will be the final for sure) from Volume 1! I'm so excited! As well as excited to see your guys' reaction to next chapter X)_**

 ** _So with that said, thank you loyal fans who've stuck with us up till now, and I hope you're all prepared for the title of the next chapter: The Truth Comes Out_**


	21. The Truth Comes Out

_**A/N: Ios Miho, or however you pronounce that. I gotta tel you guys, this chapter was a lot of fun to write. Aside from being in my mind for literally over a month even before I came back, I was so excited to write this chapter beyond all else X)**_

 _ **Now I will warn ahead of time, as I near the conclusion of the pre-volume arcs, my writing is getting a bit choppy here and there. Idky, but I think it's partly due to a migraine I've had all morning. It's minor but it keeps nagging on the far edge of my head. No worries, nothing serious, just more I pay attention to it the more it irks. Kinda weird...**_

 _ **Anyway, hope you all enjoy the first parter of this Grand Finale (Of Ruby's growing up chapters, we are farrrrrrr from done yet XP)!**_

 _ **...**_

 _ **...**_

 _ **...**_

"So the heist went off without a hitch?" Cinder asked stirring the batter. Just like a year ago, Roman found himself seated on a stool, at the island's countertop.

"If you could even call it that." He gruffed. "There's been a lot of slack on their end of things. Trying to find good help these days became increasingly harder with each successful heist.

It had been a grueling year and a half for the group to get through. Ever since the Belladonnas had renounced their leadership of the White Fang, the members themselves stealing nearly everything Cinder had come into possession of over the last decade, business had been harder to deal with. With what little they could afford to get, they could only find the lowest of low thugs here, practically nothing more than street punks looking for a quick buck, And even that was becoming increasingly harder!

Half the idiots he hired couldn't pull off the most basic of heists, and another fourth of them were nothing short of complete dumbasses, at least to Roman's standards. The fourth of this category were actually stupid enough to brag to their friends about a "sweet gig", as they put it, ending up getting arrested after their parents or the parents of their friends found out. Numerous times, Roman alone would've been arrested by now if he never changed the base of operations each and every time they pulled off a heist, knowing how incompetent the fellow thugs would be.

As for the fourth that were competent, they were less of a dime in a dozen and more of a penny in a dozen. Only up to three or four people Roman ever picked out of a crowd for his dealings ended up being useful, at least in comparison to the rest of the cronies. They were persistent, smart, and had enough pride in themselves to not only remain silent if they got arrested, but actually cover their tracks too.

That put Roman at around thirty or so goons at his disposal he could rely on.

That still didn't compare to the literal hundreds he used to have when the White Fang were with them.

On Cinder's end of things, things were a little difficult for an entirely different reason. Financially, they were fine! They had enough Lien for daily purchases like food and clothing, she managed to scrape enough around to continue hiring Ruby's tutor, and maintain ownership of the Penthouse with at least two years to spare if things didn't pick up. Seeing how things were picking up, albeit only slightly, that wasn't the issue anymore.

What was the issue though was Ruby herself. The poor child had been nothing but a mess for the following month since Blake said her farewells to the girl. Cinder didn't blame her in the slightest. It wasn't her fault her parents quit or things went awry, unless of course she actually was the one stealing from Cinder and caused the violent protests that started this incident. She was just another victim of this who wouldn't be able to see her friend Ruby anymore because of her parents, the latter of whom she couldn't tell if she could blame.

All she did know was that Ruby was very mellow for the following several months. At the end of each month she would just wait in the living room and stare at the door for several minutes hoping Blake would come back to them. And each and every time, she would be met with the same disappointment. It didn't help her case either that Blake never texted or called her to keep in touch, nor did Cinder manage to get a hold of her parents since their abandonment.

Again, it's not like she blamed them for it since they probably didn't want any calls following their retirement, but the least they could've done is let Ruby talk to Blake at least once.

It only became worse for Ruby when the holidays came around. She would expect her best friend in the world to just pop out and surprise her around those days, only to meet with the same results. There were no surprise visits on her birthday, no sudden arrivals around Christmas time, there was nothing but a missing girl Ruby grew up with through most of her childhood.

Actually, the only surprise visit she did get at all was another interesting visit from her "Grandma Salem" at Christmas. The woman wasn't left in the dark about Ruby's current emotional state, having seen through the dogs eyes since Ruby lost her friend, and, to Cinder's shock, actually came by to visit her in any hope of cheering her up.

To be honest, Cinder didn't know what to expect. She didn't think anything she said would result in a complete turnaround, not that Salem spoke within her presence at the time anyway, but it couldn't have been that useful to cheer Ruby up, right? Well, to more of her surprise, it actually did! Sure, it wasn't enough to spruce her out of it completely, but whatever she said to Ruby seemed to help her move on. She waited each and every day all the same, hoping her missing friend would eventually turn up, but at least now she was starting to smile more often like she used to.

Like today of all things as she could be seen running through the living room in her pink jacket and orange shirt, digging through the couch cushions like there was no tomorrow.

"Mmmh where is it, where is it..." She groaned.

"There's the birthday girl." Cinder greeted cheerfully. "You ready for the big 1! 0!"

"Mmmh not here either..." Cinder and Roman looked at each other briefly as Ruby continued to ignore them. Having tossed nearly all the cushions off the first couch, she quickly jumped over to the next unchecked couch.

"Umm... So sweetie, what kind of cake do you want tonight?"

"That, the cake, sounds good, whatever." Ruby quickly replied, not caring for the details of whatever Cinder said.

"Uhhh a-and I was thinking of donating your presents to charity..." She casually lied, trying to get the girl's attention again.

"Yeah whatever, supper sounds great mom." She wasn't even aware of the fact it was only noon.

"Hey, I heard your friend Blake got hit by a bus!" Roman tried.

"Roman!"

"Yeah go ahead, you can spend the night. Uuuuuugh!" Ruby groaned rubbing her head on the now cushionless couch.

"Ruby, what are you looking for?" Cinder wondered.

"My headphones." She answered. "The new ones, the really big ones? I can't find them anywhere!"

"You mean the star-shaped ones I bought you last week?" Cinder asked. 'Ruby, I swear you go through those things like candy."

"I'm sorry mom, but I couldn't have just lost these! They're those big sound-proof ones, that cover your entire ear! I asked for them big so I wouldn't lose it."

"Well just retrace your steps." Roman suggested as he leaned back. "Think of the last place you had them before losing it."

"Hmm let's see..." Ruby poked her chin as she stared off into thought. "I went to the warehouse for training, brought my homework with me, trained, had a snack during homework, took them off to rest for a bit, fell asleep cause you guys were running so late, briefly woke up while Mom and Sis carried me home- Awww maaaaan!" Ruby rubbed her forehead irritably. "They're still at the warehouse!" She realized as she began tying her shoes on.

"Ruby-" Cinder began, seeing how Ruby planned on heading straight there.

Over the last two years, she began letting Ruby out of the house more often. There was no more fear of someone recognizing her or any chance of discovering her whereabouts, provided she kept silent about the whole stealing thing her mother and Uncle were behind. Granted, she still had her big sis escort her half the time she wanted to go anywhere farther than a few blocks from their house, but anywhere closer and she started feeling more content with trusting Ruby's responsibility. She was a big girl now who knew right from wrong, in some manner more than others, as well as how to find her way home from now on.

"I know, I know, keep my phone on hand, don't talk to strangers, and come straight home, right?" Ruby mimicked her mother's tone playfully, remembering all the rules.

"And...?" Cinder added with a raised brow.

"And...?" Ruby thought to herself for a moment before she realized what she forgot. "Oh, right! My bat!" She remembered, hooking on her backpack as she stuffed it between her back and backpack like a holster. They didn't necessarily live in any dangerous part of town or anything, which was a given since they were the cause of 80% of that crime, but it was better safe than sorry.

"That's my girl." Cinder smiled with a nod. "Be sure to call if you need anything or something else comes up, ok?"

"Alright, taking off. Love you bunches!" She waved as she left.

"Love you bunches too." Before, Cinder would've been embarrassed about saying such things in front of Roman, but given how commonly he started coming to the penthouse these days, she was losing any and all nerve.

Watching the door closed, she waited a few more seconds before turning to Roman. Seeing the obvious look on her face, Roman sighed as he dug through his pockets looking for his scroll.

"Yeah yeah, I know, I'll make the call." He muttered.

Any time Ruby needed help at or to find something at one of their safe houses or warehouses, a simple phone call would leave Ruby "conveniently" running into his goons after finding the things she was looking for. It wasn't common for her to leave her things at the warehouses, even as she started going to them regularly, but any amount of help they could provide, as well as watching out for her, eased any tension Cinder had with letting her daughter go somewhere far away.

"Speaking of girls, how's Neo?" Roman wondered as he dialed.

"She's doing well. I'm having her work on a little something for Ruby's present." Cinder replied. "She's been more of a sister to Ruby ever since... well... you know..."

"Any idea who tipped off the Belladonnas by the way?" Roman asked. "I wasn't even aware of a shortage in our inventory, so someone's been going behind our backs here."

"Well Neo's off the list, she hasn't uttered a single word in all these years." Cinder smirked.

"And even if she's a thief-in-training, I highly doubt Ruby would be the mastermind that double-crossed us." Roman joked. "She wouldn't even be able to pull it off, would she?"

"She spent a week at the Belladonnas residence, but obviously I didn't give her any state-of-the-art weaponry or something. And even then that was several years ago."

Quite a mystery they had on their hands, one they were more than willing to forget. The more they kept discussing this back and forth, the more they found themselves doubting each other, something they couldn't do. They were in this till the bitter end at this point, seeing how they both had so much to lose if they didn't work together, and even more to gain as long as they did.

Besides, it was a bit of a mutual trust at this point if they weren't already friends. They couldn't afford to let the other out of their sights for very long if they were the leak in their operations, so whether they liked it or not, they needed to keep each other close. And honestly, they did sort of like it. They were still good friends and even better allies. Plus with their own kids being pretend-siblings to one another, they had something in common.

That would last for as long Ruby knew, what she thought was, the Truth.

...

At the same time, three figures just watched the entrance of the hotel with enthusiasm, just waiting and watching for a certain person to appear. It might have seemed like a waste of time to some, but for these three, their curiosity paid off when they saw the very person they were hoping to come running out of the building.

"Is that her?" The first figure asked from the shadows.

"Yeah dude!" One of the larger shadows said. "I tipped someone off about the registry. Apparently that little snot's family has been living in that penthouse for the last seven years, they must be loaded!

"Heh, easy money, am I right guys?" The third figure replied with a snide remark. "We just need to wait till she leaves her home later in the day, when the streets are less busy."

"Why not now though, Mark?" The thick-headed one asked. "It wouldn't make much different in the day, right?"

"Get a hold of yourself Bronx," the shorter one yelped, "we if pull anything right now the cops will be on us in minutes! Too many people are walking around in the day, we need to wait till evening."

"Exactly. Trust me guys, I know it might take awhile, but it'll be worth it when we're loaded in riches!"

...

"C'mon, where is it, where is it..." Ruby grumbled to herself as she searched around. Several rooms later, and several spots she naturally rested at, and she still couldn't find the blasted things. Taking a deep breath to herself, she exhaled calmly as she rubbed the sides of her forehead once more. "Ok, calm down, calm down, remember what your uncle said." Ruby told herself as she retraced her steps further.

The warehouses these days felt more like a second house, really. There were at least several occasions when Ruby had to sleep at a warehouse for the night, whether Cinder had unexplained work that would've taken longer to process, if she had to study overnight with her mom and sis' help, or some other reason like the penthouse was being Fumigated for fleas.

The one and only drawback that came thanks to Wolfie.

At least she still had a resting spot here and there, actually getting Cinder to bring in a bed for her to sleep on if they ever spent the night here. And by Cinder, that obviously meant getting the henchmen to drag it in here themselves. Just like this nice and colorful pink bed she had in one of the old bedrooms they used to have. It even had a nifty little lamp on the side of a small drawer on the right of it. Sometimes Cinder herself would cuddle up and fall asleep with her and Neo if she ever found the two too peaceful to disturb for the night.

"Ok," she continued mumbling to herself,"so if I dozed off, I would've slept on the bed," she said falling to the bed, reenacting the previous day's events, "and I would've taken my headphones off to the side." At this, she blinked to herself as she saw where her hand would've dropped it. "Which means, if sis didn't see it, then it would've ended up...ah ha!" Ruby cheered as she found the large headphones on the other side of the bed's floor, hidden a little ways under it.

"Hehehe, Ruby 1, headphones 0." She cheered, fastening them around her neck once more as she walked to the door. "You'll have to do better than-

"-ve to do this anyway, man?" Ruby's attention suddenly shifted to the opened door as she heard the voices. Sneaking her way over to the edge, she peaked around the corner to see two of Roman's goons casually talking in the hallway, both looking a little peeved.

"Hey, you heard the boss. Just gotta help the brat find her headphones before she gets here." The taller man grunted back.

"Thanks for having confidence in me, mom." Ruby commented rolling her eyes. By now she wasn't entirely surprised by her mom's tendency of being a little overprotective. She loved her mother very much, and her mother loved her in turn. So it only made sense she was a little cautious and wanted to help Ruby look for her things faster.

Ruby just wished she figured this out all those other times she coincidentally bumped into these guys in the past. Shaking the thoughts out of her head, she prepared to step her way out and begin the long trek home.

"Why does that Cinder-slut even care so much about the dumb brat anyway?" She heard the first good suddenly ask.

What was that? What did they call her?! Oh, they were in so much trouble when Ruby told on them! Nobody calls Ruby a dumb brat! ...Oh and that Cinder-something he said, but she was mostly angry about the brat part! She was gonna whack them with her bat! She was gonna sock em!

"I mean the kid doesn't even belong to her anyway, right?"

She was going to-! Wait a minute... what did they just say?

"Nah man, I heard from that Roman guy himself. The dame found the kid when she was still a teen herself, took the baby off a dying mother in the woods."

"That... That can't be right... " Ruby's heart sank at these words. None of this was true, it couldn't be true!

Right?

But... the way they spoke, everything they said...

It wasn't enough that they summed up the reasoning behind it in a few short seconds, the other issue was how closely it resembled the tale of her own father. Countless times, Cinder would go on and on to Ruby about her father about how great he was, how proud of a man he was and how much he loved Ruby. It would always end with his heroic exploits too, her mother always detailing what a brave man he was fighting off the Grimm that attacked him, dying just to save his pride and joy.

Ruby.

But now, here she stood. Hearing these words of being repeated like a broken record like the deleted scenes to a movie's bonus features. These were the parts she hadn't known about, and after today, she wished she never did.

"Eesh, that's harsh man. But least she sounds like a decent chick, ya know?" The tall one commented again.

"Eh, I don't know man. The kids been a burden on her ever since Cinder found her." The short one shrugged. "I heard she's been stuck looking out for the kid ever since, never getting a moments rest and all."

"Yeah, but that's just what a parent does, right?" The other man blinked.

"A parent? Sure, I guess, whatever. Some chick who just takes a kid out of nowhere, dead mother or not? That's just gotta be hell to live with, from beginning to end. I mean does Cinder even love the runt?"

Of course she loved her... right?

"You kiddin' me? I don't know what her deal is, but nobody would care for some kid just like that. You know, not unless it proved useful."

"Well it worked out somewhat, didn't it? I mean I heard it helped win over the White Fang's trust."

Oh, great. More good news of her life. Not only was she finding out her mother WASN'T her mother, not only did she NOT love her, but she was also finding out she was being used from the very beginning.

Maybe if she stayed a little longer she'd get to hear about some brain tumor she had, oh joy...

"I guess man, but just face it. Either way you look at it, the kid's... aww crap... "The man became petrified with fear as he looked down the hall.

There before them, was Ruby. No, not just Ruby. There stood the teary, rage-filled gaze of a kid who just had their life flipped upside down from top to bottom. She had heard every word, she had heard every detail about how much of her life has been a lie. She learned the truth. Cinder wasn't her mother, she wasn't anything of the sort. All she was was some sort of evil conniving witch who took her from her real mother. Did she know her real mother? Dear god, did she actually kill her real mother?! There was no way to find out!

Actually, scratch that. There was a useful way to find out. All she had to do was interrogate the two test crash dummies before her, who were let in on all the details regarding Ruby and her life.

"Oh cripes, we uhhh..." The Tall Man gulped as he stepped back. "How uhhh...I-I mean hey kid, we were just looking for you! Need help finding your-"

"I heard it." Ruby stated firmly. "I heard it all."

"Oh, t-that? We uhh... We was just foolin' is all, right Macky?" He said in a joke-filled manner, chuckling to his buddy.

"We were?"

 _*whap*_

"Ow!" He yelped as he was elbowed in the gut. "Oh! Uhhh yeah, I mean we were! You know how it is, like Jeff here's so stupid, his mom must've adopted him too, hahaha..." He forced a nervous laugh.

"Y-Yeah, kid, nothing more than jokes! Now how about-"

"Shut up!" Ruby yelled, eyes filled with rage and tears. "I want you to tell me everything. Right. Now!"

At this, the shorter of the two goons looked unamused. He was willing to take orders from the girl, even gripe from her. But if there was one thing he wasn't going to take from her, it was her crap. He refused to listen to some whiney little girl throwing a tantrum no matter who her mom was. Sure, she could do her worst, but Cinder would never kill him with how few men they did have! So he was in the clear.

"Heh? What was that you little snob?" He snorted.

"Uhhh Jeff?" The other man tapped his shoulder nervously looking behind him.

"Not now, Macky, this needs to be said." He scoffed. "Listen you little runt. You might get all high and mighty as much as you want, but mom or no mom, and let's be serious, she ain't your mom," he taunted, earning more tears from her to his delight, "that doesn't give you the right to boss us around."

"J-Je-Jeeeff..."

"Shut up man, seriously!" He grumbled back. "As I was saying, it doesn't matter who you are or where you're from. You don't have a weal mommy, waaaah." He taunted. "Get over yourself. At least your mom's the crime queen around here! So maybe you should stop dribbling your nose everywhere and-

"JEEEEEFF!"

"Geezes Macky, What's the pro-"

"Grrrrrrrrr!" The low toned grumble followed by the feeling of fresh air breathing behind his neck suddenly caught his attention. Every nerve in his being was telling him not to turn around, but he disobeyed. Slowly, he turned, being greeted with a sight even more horrific than ten Cinders in the same room could've pulled off.

There, he met a Grimm. Not just any Grimm, Ruby's Grimm. Wolfie. It's aggressive stance, it's deadly jaws oozing with saliva, that horrifying face that was even above his own. By this point of Wolfie's and Ruby's life, the wolf had reached, what was assumed to be, it's full size. The wolf now towered over many adults themselves, the wolf nearly touching the top of the hall's ceiling. It must've stretched at least twenty feet in length, and a little over the size of a car, nearing ten feet in height.

It was a mother. Ruby was her cub. And they had made the both of them angry.

"O-Oh god..." Jeff trembled with fear, falling to his back as he backed away with Macky. He came to a sudden halt as he bumped into something, feeling a few droplets of water dripping to his head. Looking up, he saw her.

Ruby Fall. Or, as it was now known, simply Ruby. The one girl that he continued to anger and insult despite the tears flowing from her face. And as of this moment, she was the only force present keeping this dog from eating the both of them alive. All it would take was one little twist of her will, and she could easily sick this dog on them.

She wouldn't do it, not intentionally anyway. Even if Wolfie acted on her own some of the time, Ruby would always be the deciding factor of whether or not she did what she did, provided she was capable of doing so at the time and focused. As long as she was focused, as long as her emotions were in check, she could keep the wolf like this, simply growling at them for as long as she wanted. There was no negotiation with the wolf herself. She only obeyed Ruby, her own little cub, her one master.

But right now, her emotions were too flared up to concentrate. Her heart's been torn to pieces, ripped to shreds. Everything around her and about her saddened her to no end, and angered her almost twice as much. So right now, she was one pissed off little ten-year-old.

"You are going to tell me everything. NOW."

...

...

"So then she said, "Now that's a Katana!"..." Roman finished. All he was met with were empties stares from the cooking Cinder and a perplexed look from a teenage Neo who was looking back from the couch.

Cinder just blinked. "... I don't get it."

-WHAT WAS THE KATANA?-

"I don't get it either, I was hoping you two would." Roman shrugged. "Why bother telling a joke only half an audience was going to get?"

"Maybe it's a "you had to be there" situation," Cinder shrugged, "I mean the buildup sounded good at least."

"Yeah, but even then it doesn't really make much sense-"

 _*WHAM*_

"CINDERRRRRRRR!"

Everyone's heart skipped a beat at that. No one, in the history of forever, had once heard the ten-year-old, ever in their lifetime, refer to Cinder as anything than mother. They could practically feel a huge gust of anxiety sweep across the entire room, returning confused and surprised glances to one another, none of them returning it to the young voice that suddenly called her out. The only thing the lone mother could do was briefly clear her throat, trying to respond as casually as possible to the strange greeting she received.

"I-I'm right here sweetie-"

"Don't sweetie me!" Ruby yelled back, finally lifting her head. It was at this point Cinder could see the angered expression on her face and the tears pouring down it.

"Ruby!" She gasped worriedly, walking over to her. "Hun, what happened-?" She tried reaching over to her chin to dry off some of the tears, only to be swat away by Ruby's small hands.

"W-Who are you?" Ruby asked. Neo and Roman shot each other a more confused look with a hint of worry. Not only did Ruby call Cinder by her name, but she swat at her hands too when she was trying to calm her down.

Something was terribly wrong.

"...Who am I?" She really couldn't tell if Ruby was being serious or asking in a rhetorical sense. "Why I'm your mother swee-"

"No you're not!" Ruby shouted. "I know everything! You're not my real mother!"

Nothing but fear filled Cinder's eyes as they went hallow, the look of horror crossing both Neo's and Roman's face simultaneously. This was it. This was the worst case scenario, one Cinder had prayed would never come to light. They did everything in their power to keep it from being a secret, to keep Ruby from finding out, always dreading the day this may possibly come to fruition.

Out of all the plans they had ever concocted in their life, they never had a contingency for this. Not one of them had a back-up plan, a way to counter this or any other argument in regards to Ruby's true heritage. Why would they even? There wasn't really a way to counter someone finding out the truth about their lies. They could try to cover it up with more lies, but even that would only get them so far.

Ruby was old enough now to know how the real world worked, or at least a majority of it. She knew the idea between truths and lies, honesty and betrayals, everything that made the world work back and forth. And it was these facts that would make any sort of lying to her even harder. The only thing Cinder could do at this point was play along, hoping to find the crux of this matter.

"W-What are you talking about, Ruby?" She asked nonchalantly, standing up again.

"Don't play dumb with me!" Ruby snapped back. "I know it! I know about everything!"

"W-What's everything?"

"Stop that! Stop trying to act casually about any of this!" Ruby shouted, her anger drying away any of the tears in her eyes. "I know about all of it! Those idiots working for Roman said as much!"

"Oh my freaking god, I'm gonna kill those guys..." Roman muttered facepalming.

"So it is true!"

Roman could only blink in mixed disbelief and worry. Ruby, of all the people in the world, just tricked him into confessing. "Ehhhh... Y-You know I think I'll just clear the room for a bit-" He said, slowly stepping off of the stool.

"PLANT IT!"

"Yes sir." He yelped, quickly sitting back in the chair. Roman couldn't believe it. Ruby had actually scared him enough that for a split second, he actually thought it was Cinder who just gave him those orders.

"Ruby, don't be rude like that-" Cinder tried to speak again, meeting the same results as before.

"Stop talking like that! Stop talking like you're my mother, I know you're not!" This was unbearable. The one fear Cinder always had coming true like this, out of nowhere, she didn't know what to think. There was too much stress going on as her heart beat over a mile a second, unable to comprehend how these events could've possibly transpired before her, all like this.

 _*ding*_

"O-Oh um...L-Look!" Cinder nervous smiled." The cakes done, better get to it!" It was painfully obvious how forced her words were, trying to find anything to drop the conversation as she walked over to the oven.

"Don't walk away from me!" Ruby grumbled as she followed. "What else have you been lying about?" All Ruby needed was a quick glance around the room to find the answer. "You're not really my uncle, are you?!"

"Ehhh... w-well uhhh..." He never thought he'd reach the moment in his life where Ruby of all people would make him nervous like this, but here it was.

The pain only intensified as she turned her gaze upon Neo. Neo, her sister. Or what she believed to be her sister. Just looking at the guilty look in her eye only pained her more as she returned the same look of innocence. "And you... You're not really my sister, are you...?" Neo's frown was all she needed.

It pained her. Everything from this moment pained her. Here she was, discovering everything about her life had been nothing more than a complete lie. How was anyone supposed to take this? The people she cared for, the people even closer to her, have been lying to her since the day she entered their lives. No, not entered. Stolen into their lives. All because of one woman who supposedly took her in from the forest from a dying mother.

Why was her mother dying? Was any part of it true? Was her mother really killed by Grimm? Or did Cinder, the person she spent all her life calling mommy, just make that stuff up in order to justify her own actions? She couldn't trust anyone anymore!

"A-And..." Ruby shook, not with sadness, but anger. "Grandma... isn't really my grandma, is she?"

"Look, Ruby-" Cinder tried to calm herself down as she breathed deeply.

"No, you look here!" Ruby shouted walking up to her again. "I don't want it anymore! I don't want any of your lies! Just tell me the truth already!"

"Fine!" Cinder snapped back. Roman glanced over to the worried face of Neo as she showed him her cue card.

-THIS ISN'T GOING TO END WELL :*( -

"You want the truth? Here's the truth! I took you in from a dying mother in the middle of a Grimm-infested forest! There! Happy?" She grumbled trying to focused on the cooking again.

"No I'm not happy!" Ruby retorted. "I'm angry! My whole life you've been lying to me about everything, haven't you? You never once cared for me, you never once loved me!"

"Ok look, Ruby, I lied, ok? I lied about a lot of things. But not once did I ever say I loved you and lie about it, ok? I truly cared-"

"No you didn't! You don't love me, you never loved me! You're only pretending to love me because you can't get over the fact that my real mom's dead because of you-!"

 ** _*WHAP!*_**

There was nothing but shock. Absolutely, mortifying shock. Roman, in all his life time, never once thought he would ever see this day. If they were training? Sure, why not? It made sense. They would just be training, it wouldn't mean anything else. There would be no anger behind it, no reasoning for it. Not to mention Neo, the girl who practically grew up alongside Ruby for most of her life. Cinder loved her very, very, much. More than she loved Neo, which she neither blamed her for or minded. She accepted that. She still loved Neo like a daughter even with that said, so it never even phased her.

But out of no part of her life, never intentionally, never out of reflex, did Cinder ever hurt Ruby, until this very moment.

She slapped her. She slapped her hard enough for the vibrations to still linger in the room. She slapped her hard enough to leave a fine pink print on her cheek from where she hit her. She did this, Cinder, her so-called mother, hit the only person in this room she had never hit before. Ruby. Her Ruby. The love of her life. Across her face with right hand, which was still frozen out of shock of these events.

And there stood Ruby. The girl who's eyes filled with tears as her gaped expression hung open. She had never been hit like that, not in her life time. Sure, she's been hit before numerous times in training. Countless, harder times from her used-to-be-sister. But none of those times ever had any emotions behind them, not like this.

She could feel it. Cinder's rage, behind the mark she left behind. She could only wince slightly as she hesitantly touched it, unable to believe what she had done even as she looked back to her mother's devastated expression.

"R-Ruby..." She couldn't think of anything to say. "S-Sweetie... I..." Her pleas fell short as Ruby's face contorted to a mix of rage and sadness, her resentful glare covering up the tears dripping from her eyes.

"I HATE YOU! I HATE ALL OF YOU!" She shouted, bolting for her room before slamming the door hard enough to shake some of the nearby fixtures and vases.

They didn't know who to look at. Should they look to Cinder, the one who slapped her darling angel? Or to Ruby's door, where the one who discovered the truth behind this matter disappeared to? Neither of them were innocent or guilty of these events, They were things that just happened. They had reasoning, they had explanation, but they didn't have a predictable outcome.

They just happened. That's all that could be said.

"Nnnnghhh..." Cinder closed her eyes in frustration as squeezed her arms. "I need a drink." She stated before walking out the door without another word.

They wouldn't even question anything at this point. If she was leaving, that left the two of them in charge of Ruby until she got back. They wouldn't argue with it after everything they just witnessed, or even think about leaving one or the other behind to do it themselves. All Neo could do was write out her next line of thoughts to the only people present in this room.

-SHOULD WE CHECK ON THEM?-

"Huff, just give them some space." Roman groaned rubbing his brow. "This is seriously something they need to patch up themselves, not us." He sighed looking over his can of beer. "Not like anything we say will matter right now."

As much as it hurt to admit it, Roman was right. Nothing Neo could do at this point would cheer Cinder up, especially not Cinder. Come to think of it, would anything ever cheer her up again if it came from Neo? She spent all her life looking out for her, spent all her life pretending to be her older sister through the orders of both Roman Torchwick and Cinder Fall, because they were the closest thing she had as a family at first. Within a year of that, Ruby came into their lives, and she was quick to look up to Neo as her older sister. And not once did Neo ever tell Ruby the truth, not out of fear or regret, but because she loved her. She loved her like the rest of her family, just like Ruby used to before this day came about.

The only difference here, was that Neo at least knew the truth.

...

A truth Ruby had to find out the hard way as she cried onto her bed. Nothing would matter to her anymore. She couldn't accept something, anything, at this point. If she did, it would be pointless. It would just be another lie after all, right? A lie that was built around Ruby's entire life from the day she was taken in by her fake mother, the woman who only did so out of regret for her actions. The woman who only did it because she couldn't get over her own sadness, so she stole a young child to make up for it, thinking it would ease her pain.

She cared about her own happiness more than Ruby, and nothing would convince Ruby anything passed that. And you know what? That was fine! She didn't care anymore! After all, why should it? If her entire lie has been a lie, then that means the love she once had for her mother was a lie too! Yeah, that made perfect sense! If Cinder never loved her, then Ruby never loved her fake mother either. She wasn't her mom, she wasn't someone she knew. She was just a complete stranger who brought Ruby into their life for her own greed! Yeah, she was just being an evil greedy lady who whined about not getting what she wanted until she stole it from someone else! That made her evil, real actual evil and not fake evil! She was a monster and Ruby was going to accept that without any issues whatsoever!

...So why did it hurt so much? Why did her mother's returned anger frustrate her more, make her more sad? It was fake after all, so it really shouldn't hurt! It wasn't fair, none of it was. She spent her whole life tricking Ruby into loving her as the sweet and caring daughter that she was while never giving any of it back to Ruby.

She truly was Evil! Evil with a capital E! In fact, it wasn't just her. They all were, they were all evil! At any given point of their life, they could've told Ruby the truth, they could've let her know all the secrets her mother had been keeping from her, and yet they didn't. They were just as evil as she was! And who knows? Maybe Blake and her family knew the truth too? Dear god, if that was the truth, was her love for her other sister fake too? Was she only pretending to be a friend to her since childhood simply because of a basic, easy, lie? Did that mean they didn't care for her either?

Well fine! Ruby didn't care either! She wouldn't care even if they did care! Was it unfair? Sure, but why should that bother her! If her life's been a lie, she wouldn't care about them, she wouldn't care about any of them! They would be nothing more than jerks and bullies to her, even the people closest to her! That was the only thing she could think to make the pain go away.

The pain she continued to cry out into her pillows for the last ten minutes, where nobody cared about her or would even check up on her. It was completely fine, nothing but fine! Even as her wolf grew from it's shadow, looking at her sadly as it stretched nearly to the ceiling, she didn't care! The wolf didn't care! Nothing ever cared about her!

"Hrrrnh." The wolf whined. Ruby couldn't help but look back to it, still teary-eyed.

Ok, fine. Maybe the wolf cared. That was like, what? One person? Or animal? Big whoop. It didn't matter that much. But it was still one more person that cared for her compared to the rest who knew she was in here crying! winced slightly as the wolf nuzzled it's wet nose into her own.

"Oh, who am I kidding?" Ruby cried, hugging the wolf's snout. She could admit it. The wolf truly was the only one who cared for her. After all, it made sense when you thought about it. She got it from her former-grandma when it was a pup so there was no way it would have any knowledge of everything that went on beforehand. She was just another victim of this whole lying game brought before them, yet at the same time it only cared about Ruby's pain more than it did it's own.

"I'm sorry girl, I just..." Ruby sniffled as she cried into it's fur. "I can't do this anymore. I can't be here, I can't be anywhere around here." She said as she began packing her backpack with some of her belongings. Clothes, some snacks she had in a cupboard, anything that would fit. She was unsure of whether or not the wolf could understand what she was doing, but it grew worried as it nuzzled Ruby's head again. "Sorry Wolfie, but... You can't come with me. They lied to me, sure, but you can still have a good life here."

 _*click*_

That was the all too familiar sound of a collar. It wasn't wrapped around her neck of course, seeing how they would need more of a belt just for it to fit, so she wrapped it around the only thing that would fit: her foot.

They only discovered this about a year or two back, but they discovered a way they could keep Wolfie from jumping into Ruby's shadow if they ever needed to keep them separated, like if she went out to public somewhere for something or having some special event taking place and they needed room. As long as anything solid was on Wolfie, she couldn't merge with Ruby's shadow. It could be something as simple as a piece of string, wrapped around her of course, to anything like a bandana, and she wouldn't be able to merge with her shadow. Not a single part of her body would even sink in as long as something was on her.

It was actually by accident they discovered this too, like Ruby's semblance. After coming home one day, Ruby thought she could spice up Wolfie's image by giving her a nice bright red bandana to wrap around her neck. To her credit, it did look pretty fashionable. It definitely brought out the color from her eyes and mask, seeing how those were the only things giving her any color in the first place. However, after awhile when she needed hide Ruby into her shadow, she was met with a rather funny scene of the wolf simply head-butting itself into the ground several times until it got dizzy. It wasn't until after she took the bandana off that they discovered a way to keep Wolfie from merging with Ruby's shadow.

The wolf could only look back to it's master as she opened the patio door, having gathered anything she could including her bat. Looking over the railing, a bead of sweat dripped down Ruby's face. The only way she was going to get out of this loveless home was by reaching for the fire escape. On the bright side, it stretched up all the way to the penthouse so anyone could take it, penthouse owners included. Only problem was, it was a good yard away from her patio since it only connected from the living room of the penthouse.

She hated to do this, but she had to. There was no other way to reach the fire escape from here. "You be good now Wolfie, you hear?" Ruby said back with a sad smile. "No whining or barking while I'm gone." That's all she needed to say to know the wolf would remain silent. She didn't know how long it would take but she needed as much time as possible to escape without worrying of anyone coming after her, fake family included.

Making the horrible mistake of looking down, Ruby held her breath as she looked ahead of the railing. It was just a simple jump that she would need, nothing too difficult right? She couldn't focus on the amount of space between the two of them, all she could focus on was escaping from here with the one thing with the word escape in it's name.

"1... 2..." Ruby hesitated. "Two and a ha- THREE!" Ruby yelled as she jumped over. She couldn't even feel a pulse as she jumped from point A to point B. The only thing she could feel after was the intense rattle of the fire escape as her feet touched the ground. "I did it..." She looked around herself with mild pride. "I did it!"

This was it then. A clear walk down the fire escape and she would be looking to freedom in no time.

Goodbye old life, hello... some other life.

...

...

"Ugghhh..." Cinder groaned. She sat at the bar of the hotel for the last twenty minutes, leaning on her arm.

What was she to do? What could she have done to prevented this? Aside from hitting Ruby of course, mostly since that was just a spur of the moment and not intentional so it didn't count.

Could she have told Ruby the truth earlier in her life? She kept Ruby hidden from the outside world for half of her life, not wanting to take the chance of someone recognizing her. She could've told her around that time, growing up with the knowledge would've been easier to explain to a simpleminded child. But then there was the chance she would blab it to anyone new she came across. She still managed to get out into the city at the age of three and a half, thanks to Roman, so who knows who she would've or could've told. In fact, the minute she met Weiss, she could've easily told her how Cinder wasn't her mommy and had her taken away from her! That would've been worse to her than finding out about Cinder's illegal crime operations.

Maybe she could've told her during the last five years of her life? She matured more day by day, and she could've trusted her to keep it a secret, right? But what if she got too curious? What if one day she decided to put herself through her own personal little quest? She could've gone around asking people if they knew her parents, told the police she was looking for her family and get taken in before she could explain she had a foster family! That would've been equally as bad, if not worse given the increasing love Cinder continued to grow for the girl as the years went by.

There was no possible answer. There just wasn't. The only thing Cinder did through her life was keep as silent about it as possible, and pray that Ruby never found out. Perhaps she could've told Roman not to tell his fellow goons, that seemed the most plausible right? But then there was the chance they too got too curious. They could ask too many stupid questions like her eye colors, why Ruby doesn't have any pictures of her dad, and so forth. Eventually it would only lead to Ruby questioning everything and finding out the truth in some way again, resulting in the exact same ending!

And look where that ending brought her now. Solemn, depressed, filled with regret. There was no happiness to be found here. The only thing the bar could do was drown out her sorrows with something to drink.

"Well, hey g-*hic!*-ood looking." A voice called over.

"Oh great, another drunk." She muttered to herself, hair covering half her face. She paid the apparent drunk no mind as he took a seat to her right.

"Hey now sh-weet ch-*hic!*-eeks, let's not get carried away." The man coughed to himself as he cleared his head. "Look, that was unprofessional of me, I admit it. Why don't I buy ya a drink for your troubles?" He offered, clicking his fingers. "Hey barkeep! Bring me the usual, one for me and my friend over here." Cinder didn't even care to look at the nodding barkeep, already telling what he was doing as he walked on by.

"We're not friends..."

"Awww c'mon, don't be like that." He said, nudging her right shoulder. "No one comes here without a problem they're trying to forget."

"I don't have a," she only paused briefly as the barkeeper placed two half-filled clear glasses of green alcohol before them, "problem. Not that you would know anyway."

"Oh really?" The sleazy man grinned. He loved a challenge! "Ok, tell ya what. If I can guess your problem, you spend a few minutes to drink with me. If I get it wrong, I'll leave ya alone, drinks on the house either way. How does that sound?"

It sounded like nothing but irritation to her. But perhaps it would be the closest thing to an amusing distraction she needed. "Whatever, take your best shot."

"Alright... Boyfriend, right? Jerk dumped ya, found him cheating, or some other thing, right?"

"No, now goodbye." Cinder scoffed as she stood up.

"Hey wait," the man called out, grabbing her wrist, "come on, one more chance? Double or nothing. I win, we have two drinks, lose and I leave the hotel entirely and never come back." Cinder's nostrils flared at this. She didn't want any part of this, but found herself unable to resist the call of a good distraction.

"Fine. One more, no more chances though-"

"You had a fight with your kid and it went too far, right?" No way. She could only stare back at him with and his sleazy, grey-haired, grin with disbelief. There was only one conclusion she managed to draw out of this.

"Y-You tricked me!" It made perfect sense. While she couldn't figure out how he got the exact details out of it, she realized he was just playing her so he could spend more time with her.

"Guilty, but fair." He grinned, grabbing his drink. With a sigh, Cinder returned to her seat. A bet was a bet, and there was no way he was going to let her go after capturing his prey. With less of a frown than before, she casually grabbed her drink before shaking it to his.

 _*clink*_

"Bottoms up." He declared, downing his drinking half his glass in one gulp.

"Hack-ough! Haaackk-ouuughhh..." Cinder couldn't help as her face suddenly flushed, coughing her lungs out at the burn in her throat, patting her chest with her fist .

"Hahaha, guess that's a little strong, huh?" This time around, he didn't expect it as much as his last prediction, but it wasn't too surprising either. "Sorry about that. Hey, drink-guy! Get the lady a cold gin, stat."

"Mmh..." Well on the bright side of things, she now had something else to focus her irritation on other than her personal life. It was only when she looked back to him more closely that she noticed something off. "Hey... your... what happened to your arm?" Staring back at his right arm himself, he simply shrugged it off with a grin.

"Eh, family issues, ya know? Had a bit of trouble with my niece a few years back, but it's alright. Still not as awesome as my real one." He grinned, flexing his left arm before her. "Wanna feel it?"

"...Tch heh..." Maybe it was the alcohol getting to her, the strong drink running through her system, but she didn't care at this point. His antics were somewhat fun to watch, seeing how desperate he was to be with her, whether it ended in drinks or a trip to one of their apartments.

He would never get the latter.

"Wow, gee, such a strong muscle..." She joked, giving his arm a squeeze.

"I know, right? Wanna feel the chest next? My body only gets more exciting the farther you explored."

"Heh, you're awful." She chuckled leaning back on her arm. "So, how did you know what was troubling me?"

"Girl, I've been to a lot of bars, met a lot of guys, and almost twice as many cute girls here and there." The man grinned taking another drink. Cinder just watched as the barkeep brought her gin to her, shrugging slightly as she took a sip of a much better tasting beverage. "And if there's one thing I've learned in my time, it's noticing the different faces of sadness that stroll in here." After another sip, he grinned back at her cheekily. "Plus, honestly, there's pretty much only two different reasons a lady comes in here by herself."

Well that explained it. He basically tricked her into giving him two guesses from a two-choice question. It wasn't fair, but it was pretty devious to his credit. She hated to admit it, but she kinda liked it.

"Gee, such a conniving devil, aren't you?" She teased with another drink.

"Guilty." He admitted. "So, tell me what's going on with your life, your kid troubles and all." Once again, Cinder just sighed. There was no point keeping things bottled up from this point forward, and she didn't have to give him any specific information anyway... or maybe she was just thinking that due to the drinks. It was becoming increasingly harder to say at this point.

"Well, I... I guess I've been lying to someone for all their life." She began.

"And let me guess, somehow they found out?"

"Bingo."

"Makes sense," he muttered, swirling the ice cubes in his glass, "not many people can handle finding out someone's been lying to them for all their lives."

"Well it beat the alternatives, that's for sure."

"Is it?" Cinder looked back with uncertainty. "If you lie to someone for just a small amount of time, then it's nothing more than a passing argument when they find out. But if you keep it bottled up for however long, you're just waiting for a time bomb to go off that gets more dangerous the longer it ticks."

"Well it doesn't matter now." She groaned. "The cats out of the bag, we got into a fight... and now I don't know what to do."

Even in his drunken, vision-impared, state, he could still see a small tear rolling down the side of her left cheek. He might not know all the answers, but he could tell she was suffering from whatever event was plaguing her. Any one in their right mind could tell after this conversation.

"So what? Do you hate each other now?" He asked curiously.

"I don't know-"

"I think you do know." He interrupted finishing off his drink. "If you really hated each other, you wouldn't be here crying your pretty eyes right now. You just don't want to admit it because you think it'll hurt worse than it does now."

"Well then Mr. Expert, what's your advice?" She scoffed. "Just make up and move on?"

"Yes." It almost scared her how blunt he was. "You keep putting it off, you'll just make it worse in the end. Eventually it'll reach the point of no return, and you'll just spend the rest of her life wondering if there's something you could've done to fix it." It was bizarre, but she couldn't ignore it. Something about the way he spoke, the look in his eyes. She could tell he wasn't just speaking out of opinion or just trying to help. He was speaking from personal experience. Maybe that's why she was slightly drawn to him right now.

"Sure seem to know a lot about this sort of thing." She commented, trying to see if her theory was correct.

"Yeah well... It's easier talking about stuff you've been through it yourself." He confirmed. "So right now, take my advice gorgeous. Go back to wherever, make up with whoever, and move on. It might take days, weeks, months, years, but eventually you'll forgive each other. Just let 'em know how you really feel, and you can move on easier. And you'll be much more happier for it too."

"Huh, you don't say..." She grinned.

She didn't realize it until now, but over the course of their conversation, their heads had slowly been leaning towards one another. It wasn't until she could feel his breath on her face that she realized this, the mysterious man drawing her in until they were gazing into each others' eyes.

"..."

"..."

*smooch*

Just a peck.

It was nothing more than a simple, brief peck on the lips. In fact, just to prove it, she kissed him again, this time locking her lips in for more than a few seconds. She couldn't believe it, but she finally found a man who knew what she's been through. She actually found it, a man she could relate to, someone completely by random chance who happened to care for her before they even met. It was someone she felt a bond with, some one who cared for her! Someone she wouldn't mind sharing her life with-

That line of thought snapped her out of it. She practically jumped out of her seat as her eyes widened. She couldn't believe what she just did, nor what she was beginning to think.

"O-Oh... Oh my god..." She mumbled, wiping her lips.

"Oh...Oh god, I'm sorry." He apologized standing before her. "A-Are you married or something or-?" Well that was a stupid question. She had to be married if she had a kid, right?

"What? Oh no, not that, it's just..." She glanced over to the drinks on the table. She wanted to punch herself in the face, but only now did she realize she went through several small glasses of gin that barkeeper was giving her. It wasn't just a simple drink she was enjoying, it was several drinks she kept downing with each sip. "Oh god... what am I doing?"

It didn't matter if she actually felt these feelings or not. She couldn't put herself through this, she couldn't afford to drag anyone else into her personal life, or her secret personal life of problems. She could't tell if this man had just been playing her, or speaking from the heart, but none of it mattered anymore. She just needed to get out of here.

"L-Look, thanks for the drinks and everything, but I should be l-leaving..." She explained, rubbing her eyes out of the slight haze.

"Well, should I help you back to your room?" He offered. "Seriously, no funny business, I promise." She couldn't even tell if that meant he had planned funny business before this conversation ended or if he was being legitimate, but she couldn't care less at this point.

"N-No, it's alright, really." She glanced over to the glasses as she reached for her purse. "H-How much do I owe-"

"Nah, don't worry about it, it's on me." He replied. "You just get yourself home and make up with whoever you angered, alright?"

"Yeah, alright... Thanks again Mr...?"

"Ah don't worry about formalities," he grinned scratching his head, "just call me Qrow."

"Qrow?" She blinked with uncertainty. "Why does that name...! Oh... Oh god..." She muttered to herself as she hastily exited the room. To the man who just scored first-possible base with the woman who kissed him, he wasn't entirely sure how to respond to her strange behavior. He wished he was sober enough to get a better look at her face, some of it blurred from the toxins running through his mind. Maybe it was the way she acted, or maybe it was all in his head, swimming around in confusion in a pool filled with whiskey.

At least there was one thing he could grin about all of this.

"She totally digs me." He chuckled, looking back to the barkeeper again. "So, how much for the drinks?"

"With the tab you already have for this week?" The barkeeper reminded, looking at his receipt. "Right now, you currently owe me 4,812 Lien, Qrow."

"...Uhhhhh huh..."

Maybe he should've had her pay after all.

...

...

...

 ** _A/N: Annnnnd hooftah, what a chapter! If it wasn't obvious guys, I had a LOT of fun with this. I mean a real lot of fun X). I'm looking forward to the many reviews, I'm looking forward to everyone's reactions to parts here and there, and most of all, I'm just looking forward to finishing this by the next chapter X)._**

 ** _As a reminder, don't forget the birthday pic contest. Refer to the last Author's note chapter for details if needed. Till then guys, leave your thoughts a lile, and a fave :P! Also I'm thinking about starting a site on Deviantart of this, what do you guys think?_**

 ** _Ah well, either way, hope you enjoyed! We're only chapter away from the Pre-Volume Finale! And spoiler warning: It's already done X) and nobody will see it till tomorrow cause I'm evil ^^ Yaaaaay!_**


	22. The Truth Doesn't Matter

_**A/N: Ok, long story short: I wrote this A/N an hour after my last post, and had nearly twice as much stuff written which I now had to delete, mostly because the majority of negative reviews were outweighed by the positive. Annoyingly enough, for whatever reason, this didn't get saved so i'm rewriting this message again- i have no idea what else i wrote late last night P_P. Which also regretfully means any possible changes i made last night with this updated author note might not have been saved, so sorry for any issues you might come across.**_

 _ **Anyway, here's what I will address from the rest of the author's note i did keep:**_

 _ **I will admit, at least to what the primary issue seemed to be, that the discovery portion of it came out of left field and whatnot, and to be honest, I do actually agree on some level (emphasis on some). I admit it was rather forced looking back at it, and I do apologize for it, but honestly... hasn't my entire fic been kinda like that XP?**_

 _ **"Oh look, she happens to accept Salem is somehow her grandmother, lah-tee-dah~"**_

 _ **"Well what do you know? The White Fang just happened to forgive Cinder because she showed she cared for her fake daughter! Let's give her money to rent a fricken penthouse!"**_

 _ **"Oh look, Ruby was saved by spiderman while he was fighting Superman using the gadgets he stole from Batman, what convenient timing!"**_

 _ **...ok that last one never happened, but do you see my point XP? A lot of bits here and there have been somewhat forced in the long run, so I never really thought much about this one. And I also admit Ruby's reaction might've been a little too forced/rude too- that is something addressed/explained later on if you manage to push yourself and read through it, or skip to the very end if you're impatient.**_

 _ **Admittedly, even that might seem a little forced, and not entirely well done, but it's the reason I had behind all this.**_

 _ **So on behalf, I apologize. And to the one troll poster who started at first, all i gotta say is... there is so much wrong (in a hilarious way) with your review that I could literally post an entire chapter's worth of stuff to say about it. Seriously guys just look at it and tell me how many problems you find with it, cause you know when someone's leaving negative feedback legitly, and then there's...his XP...**_

 _ **And look on the bright side- least after this we get onto the main series, so there's something to look forward to after this trainwreck...hopefully XP...**_

 _ **So with that all said, i'd like to personally thank those of you out there WITH ACTUAL LIVES, and not just trying to troll people and nitpick other peoples work (and no i'm not counting your review MizoreShirayukiFan , your review was quick and lenient in regards to what the problem was, so yours i didn't mind and actually liked ^^). Seriously, if you go to a person's fanfic just ot criticize every little detail, that's no different than going to watch a movie for the same purpose- you won't enjoy anything and you'll just feel miserable about it.**_

 _ **So with that said, grand and special thanks to Crimson fist 99, RayD2Kill, AuroraNova46, and one of my good friends and fellow fan, DannyPhantom619. Apologies to anyone I missed, i just wrote this in response to anyone within the first hour. I give all my warm blessings to everyone and anyone with positive feedback ^^. Your encouragement continue to push me through hardships and continue supplying the people who DO enjoy it with more content ^^.**_

 _ **So with the rant out of the way, which I apologize for again, and the thanks given to those who deserve it, enjoy!**_

 _ **...**_

 _ **...**_

 _ **...**_

"On my own... On my own..." Ruby muttered to herself every couple minutes.

She had to keep saying this to herself just to get through all of this. She was on her own now, no one else but her. She couldn't trust anyone, she couldn't go to anyone, she just had to rely on her own quick wits and understanding. Granted, the only side track she did have was wondering where to go. She was also prioritizing on taking very specific routes of the city, otherwise she could've been out of here ten minutes ago. She only took very specific routes to avoid any warehouses or places her used-to-be mother and used-to-be uncle Roman worked, not wanting to run into any of his goons that Cinder might've called to be on the look out for her at this time.

Then again, maybe they weren't even looking for her anyway? Of course they weren't, why would they! Cinder didn't truly love her, and she didn't... she didn't love Cinder either! She was just a total and complete stranger as far as she was concerned! But she still needed to be careful about where she ended up going and what routes she took. One bad turn and she could run into someone that knew her, dragging her back against her will for reasons beyond her understanding.

Although she did have to admit, what point would there be of dragging her back? Did she just want to make sure Ruby didn't say anything to the police about what Cinder and the others were doing? Yeah, that must've been it! She was only worried for herself again! She was lucky Ruby didn't call the police, something she couldn't do since her scroll was left behind anyway, and rat them out about anything they did right now! She only refrained from it out of any minuscule respect or consideration she had for taking care of her all this time! All those times she pretend to care, those... warm meals she always made... how she kissed her ouchies when she was little... reading to her every-

Bah, forget it! It was all a lie anyway! No matter how much she herself cared, she never did! And that was all that mattered-

"Heeeelp!" A voice cried out, catching Ruby's attention. "Anybody... heeeelp..." Looking up ahead of the vacant sidewalk, she noticed an empty alleyway where the voice seemed to be coming from.

Running up to the alley, she found the source of the cries. At the end of an alley, there was a large man groveling in pain on the ground as he clenched his stomach. He was wearing a blue bandana around his bald head, the only dark skin she could see uncovered from his multiple leathers being the corners and edges of his sleeves, jackets and pants, not to mention his face. There he kneeled, groveling in pain about some sort of issue with his stomach, at least what she could tell from how he groaned rubbing it. Did he have a stomach ache? Did he possibly eat to much? There wasn't any puke around him, so he didn't seem to be sick or anything.

Knowing nothing was going to be done by just standing there, she looked up and down the sidewalk just in case anything seemed off before running over to the seemingly-injured man.

"Excuse me?" She spoke up as she stood before him. "Are you ok?" The man lowered his head as he spoke.

"Ahhh... it hurts..." He groaned. Ruby was unable to see the small grin growing from is face.

"Where does it hurt, tell me what's wrong?" Ruby said kneeling down.

"Ugh... I don't know, it just hurts..." He repeated.

"How does it hurt? Should I find a doctor or-" Ruby suddenly lifted her head as she saw passed the mysterious man, focusing on the sight passed him.

There wasn't exactly anything out of the ordinary passed him, there was just the typical green dumpster and garbage chute that dropped whatever was thrown down it. What did catch her attention was the reflection she noticed from it's impressively clean metal. In the reflection, creeping closer from behind herself, she saw two more figures slowly approaching. They were dressed exactly like this man before her, wearing the same bandanas he was as well as the black leather pants and jacket. And she couldn't tell at first, but she slowly realized the man's groveling was slowly changing into a maniacal chuckle.

This man wasn't in pain at all. This was a trap. And they were soon going to regret it.

*WHACK!*

"Owww! Damn it!" The taller of the two man shouted behind her. In one swift motion, catching them off guard, she pulled the bat from between her and the backpack, striking it in one fell swoop behind her as she faced them.

*WHAM!*

"Ow! What the hell!" The other man grumbled, hopping on his right foot as the man rubbed his aching left that Ruby pummeled.

"Want anymore, freaks!" She grumbled holding her bat at the ready. "Ah-!" Even she was caught by surprise though as she was suddenly grabbed by the burly man behind her, throwing his arms around her neck as he lifted her off the ground.

"Ha, got ya ya little runt!" He cheered.

*WHAM*

"Ow!" Like the last to morons, he fell victim to the painful blow of Ruby's metal bat as she whacked it over her head, the man's head perfectly keeping it from hitting herself. As expected, this resulted in him dropping her from his grip as he rubbed his head in pain.

"Jerks!" She yelled, making a mad dash out for the street once more.

"She's getting away!" The foot-injured man yelled.

"No she's not!"

The street. All Ruby had to focus on was getting to the streets. There was no way those bozos, no matter how stupid they were, would trying to do anything out in the open to her. She just needed to make it another few feet and-!

*CRACK*

"Ahhhhhhhh!" Ruby cried in pain as she fell over. Just a mere yard away from the exit of the alleyway, her hopes were dashed away when she felt the back of her ankle connect harshly to the rim of a Trash Can's top, one thrown at her with the strength and dexterity of the large burly leader.

"Nice shot, Ross!" The blonde-haired complimented as the three neared her.

"Nnnghhh..." Ruby couldn't even cry out she was in so much pain. Looking down to her ankle, she could tell she wasn't going to be walking anytime soon, not if the swollen red lump of her foot was any indication. What few seconds of pain she had to herself were interrupted as the large man grabbed her by the hand, his massive bulgy hand wrapped around her mouth as he lifted her singlehandedly. "Mmmmmhhhh!" She cried out, pounding her ineffectively small fists against the man's weighty arms.

"Heh, don't worry girly." The leader, Ross, grinned. "You ain't gonna be in anyyyy sorrrta trouble. As long as your folks plan on paying up, you'll be just fine!"

Pay up? Folks? Oh no, this was a hostage situation. They were going to ransom her for her safe return.

Normally, that would be fine, right? She could just get her mother to beat them up or pay for her return. There was only one huge problem now. She didn't have parents. As far as she knew she never had any real parents, and after the fight she had, no one was going to want her returned safely.

And as soon as they realized that too, she was history.

...

...

"You sure she's not just hiding or something?" Roman asked with worry. Sadly, he was met with an expected frown and the shake of Neo's head confirming it.

This was bad. Really, really, bad.

The two just had the mother of all arguments, so to speak. They yelled at each other, one hit another, and both went their separate ways. Given how things usually went with Roman's life, if it ever involved these two, one of them were going to come back, most likely the literal fiery redhead that always burned whoever angered her or saddened Ruby, and she was going to discover Ruby was now missing. They only discovered this five minutes ago, and given the half-hour they spent waiting around before actually checking on her, she could've left to who knows where and who knows how far by now.

The only upside to any of this was that Wolfie was in the room, so they didn't have to worry about any news of some girl traveling on a giant Grimm wolf. At the same time, they also couldn't use her to track Ruby either. She did have a keen sense of smell, and would really make finding Ruby a cinch, but it came back to the same problem of having a Grimm wander around town out of the blue.

Not to mention the fact they couldn't get it out through the door anyway due to it's size.

"Look, do you have any idea where she could've gone?" He asked hopefully.

"She's gone again isn't she?" The all too-familiar sound of Cinder's voice filled the room, sending shivers up Roman's spine. Unlike before though, he was greeted with a less angry-looking Cinder and one who looked a little more flushed and relaxed as she leaned against the doorway.

"Uhhh Cinder? You ok?" Roman asked. Cinder scoffed silently as she closed the door, going back back to the cake that's been out for the last half-hour. Luckily it was still fresh, and now it was out of the oven for a good while, it was cooled enough to continue baking Ruby's cake.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." She mumbled. She didn't appear to have any sort of frown on her face, but she definitely wasn't smiling.

"So...uhh..." Roman tipped his hat, looking back and forth between her and Neo. "So... what's the plan?"

"There isn't any."

"...Say what?" Either he finally found a way to keep Cinder relaxed in situations like this, or this was a stranger in disguise. She was being WAY too relaxed for the Cinder he knew.

"I said there isn't any." She repeated, breathing calmly to herself as she unwinded. "Look, nothing we did is going to change anything. She's my daughter, I'm her mother, even if she doesn't feel it anymore. So, I'm just gonna give her some space, wait a few minutes for her to come back, and we'll have a long talk about it all, and we'll have a big happy cake by the end of it."

"And... if she doesn't come back on her own?" Roman asked. She could deny it all she wanted, but there was that one single percent chance she didn't return on her own.

"Well... Then I'll go find her. Plain and simple." Ok, so maybe it wasn't simple, but it was a typical answer.

What wasn't typical was Cinder's behavior. Was she really drunk right now? Was she just putting on a brave face to go against anything that was going to come to her? It was hard to say, but they also knew it was better not to push their luck with questions.

Thus with heavy hearts, everyone just went back to waiting around. Neo and Roman went back to watching TV, Neo chatting with her cards every now and then, and Cinder did her pressed to maintain focus on her cooking. She did everything within her power, everything she could do to force herself to focus on the cooking and completely ignore the situation before her. She had to wait, be patient, hope to god Ruby not only returned soon, but she would accept any and all apology Cinder gave her.

To say her nerves wracked her over the next hour was a dramatic understatement. Within the first half hour, she added the finishing touches to Ruby's delicious Cookie Cake, the greatest dessert she ever cherished, ensuring each and every edge of it was coated in delicious frosting and lovable cookie-taste. She spent every possible second to make sure the cake was perfect, wanting something in the world to keep her distracted from the tension building up in her chest.

As said, only half an hour's worth of work could keep her distracted on the cake. The rest of the time she found herself simply sitting at the stool near the island, twiddling her thumbs back and forth to distract her. There were many things she had to apologize over, slapping her the most importantly. Even now she was baffled, unable to comprehend what emotion it was that compelled her to slap Ruby like that. Was it anger? Frustration? Or was she just feeling guilty with herself for lying to Ruby all these years, lying about everything?

Dang it, she was focusing too much again! She needed to calm her breathing and just focus on the thumbs before her. She needed to look at her thumbs, and ignore the ticking clock. Ignore all the numbers that made every second feel like an eternity, every tick feel like unrelenting torture. Everything about today that had stressed her out, she needed to push it away and out of her mind, just long enough until Ruby finally returned.

*knock-knock-knock*

"Ruby!" Cinder screamed, frantically bolting to the door by the time the other two looked back. "Ruby I'm sorry-!" She sputtered as she threw open the door. But instead of her happy, smiling daughter she was just met with an envelope. Looking down the hall, she caught a brief glimpse of a shadow disappearing around the corner, being the most likely culprit behind the strange letter. "Ruby?" Was it from her? Was she sending some sort of farewell letter to her? She would have to chase her down, but she wanted to know what was in the strange thick envelope, carrying it back in the room.

"Who was at the door? Roman asked walking around the couch.

"I don't... I don't know..." Was all she could say as she flipped around the message. Something made her fear what was in the letter, the contents being more terrifying than the unknown. With shaky hands, she slowly opened the letter, ready for the worst.

Her readiness still wasn't enough.

It was a picture. A simple picture of her Ruby, her Ruby. But she wasn't smiling, she wasn't laughing. She wasn't giggling, she wasn't chuckling, she wasn't in any state other than horror, fear, and sadness.

It showed Ruby, with her mouth tapped over, ropes tied around her arms, wrist, and ankles, all with a terrified Ruby looking into the face of whoever was taking the picture. And below that, was a simple message, one with a simple demand.

BRING 1,000,000 LIEN TO THE ALLEY OF EASTBAY RD. IN 1 HOUR

To be honest though, Roman wasn't scared of that, but of Cinder.

Whoever kidnapped Ruby, whoever thought of taking her hostage, whoever possibly hurt her and scared her enough to preform this audacious feat, were about to learn a very important, very painful lesson.

They messed with Cinder's Daughter.

The fiery mother did nothing more expected than burning the very picture in her hands, trembling as the color drained from her face and the picture burnt to ash.

"L-Look, Cinder, just calm down," Roman tried to relax, nodding back and forth to Neo, "I'll round up the guys and we'll jump these guys before-"

"No." She stated coldly. "Neo, go to the warehouse and finish working on that thing I told you about." Neo didn't even show an ounce of hesitation as she quickly ran passed Cinder, racing down the hall. "Roman?"

"Y-Yeah?"

"I want you to wait here." She instructed marching towards the door.

"What for?" He hated being swept under the rug in this situation, especially when it involved all of them.

"In case Ruby escapes on her own and comes back, or in case any of those idiots come back for something else. Someone needs to here to get information out of them just in case."

Roman couldn't help but grin to himself, cracking his knuckles. "Got it." Like previously stated, Roman might not have cared for the kid as much as Neo and Cinder did, but she was still part of his own little family. If they messed with her, they messed with him and all of his goons. "What about you though?" Cinder stopped in the doorway, returning to him with a gaze of both fire and ice. It said everything he needed to know.

"I'm getting my daughter back."

...

...

"Gahhhh, how much longer?" Ross grumbled crossing his arms.

"It's only been half an hour man, cut us some slack." One of the gang members mumbled.

By now the sun was starting to set as it neared the evening. Being a little past 5 o'clock, most people were already home by now to relax after a hard day's work, or coming home from school to enjoy the company of their loved ones once more. For Ruby though? She didn't have any of that. She didn't have anyone that truly loved her, she didn't have anyone that really cared for her. All she did have was at least half an hour's worth of life left before these guys killed her.

Her mother didn't love her, she kept telling herself that. She wasn't going to be rescued, she wasn't going to be bargained for her release. Nobody cared for her anymore, not that they ever did. She was just a helpless girl who, instead of enjoin a wonderful birthday, was just going to rot wherever these stupid morons left her. They weren't going to get any money, and there was no way they were going to let her go without any form of pay. It only made too much sense that they would kill her or maybe just leave her in the middle of the woods, tied to a tree for some Grimm to snack on.

And that's if she was lucky! She's heard talks around the warehouses, heard people gossiping, what they thought was, behind her back. She wasn't dim to it, she wasn't unaware during her training. They would always talk about grisly tales here and there, talks about horrific things they did to people who pissed them off, or at least would do if they pissed them off. Always acting so high and mighty to one another just for kicks, never realizing there were prying eyes and opened ears listening to their conversations. It never bothered Ruby of course, but there was a very specific reason behind that.

She was never the topic of those conversations!

*stomp*

"Mmmph!" Ruby cried out as one of the thugs stepped their boot on the side of her head. The only thing that hurt more than that was the bruised, swollen ankle on her foot.

"Heh, what you so afraid of girrrrrrly?" The thug grinned, pinning the tip of the pipe he had just inches in front of her. "I figured someone like would be happy? After all, when this is all over, you're gonna see your mama and papa all over again... long as they don't bring the cops, of course."

Fat chance of that happening. Even if they miraculously did come for her, they would never go to the cops. They had no idea who was running the majority of the crime in this city, and it was times like this she almost wished they did. At least to some of her glee, she could die happily knowing the fact she broke this guy's thumb when she struck it with her bat. That at least would explain why he enjoyed taunting her so much.

"Hey, lay off her Tom. The folks probably won't pay for damaged goods." The leader mildly-joked.

"Hehehe, maybe we shouldn't give her back at all, Ross?" Bronx chuckled mischievously. "After all, we never said she'd see her alive, or we'd give her back alive. We could keep doing this each and every week and milk as much Lien as possible out of them."

"Damn man, I love the way you think!" Tom grinned enthusiastically. This just went from bad to worse. It was hard enough maintaining any composure before these guys for the last near-hour. She didn't want to even picture being their hostage for the rest of her life, if it ever came to that.

"Heh, I have my moments."

"Seriously man, way to contribute. Maybe you're not all brawns after all."

"Heck yeah! Wait, what does that mean-"

"Shhh! Can it. Someone's here." Ross said, standing up from the dumpster.

All eyes turned down the alleyway. None of them, Ruby included, could believe what they were seeing.

There wasn't some possible task force of police, no loving couple who returned to see their beloved daughter again, no single person holding a briefcase of cash for their greed. All there was was a single woman in a red dressed, and an incredibly pissed-off look in her eye.

"Huh? You need somethin' toots?" Tom wondered with a grunt.

"Where's Ruby?" She spoke direct and without hesitation, stepping into the alleyway.

"Heh? Oh you gotta be kidding me!" The man chuckled. "Are you the brat's mother? Cause uhhh..." He whistled as he scanned her tender body. "Damn man, you are HOT. You looking for a good time?" None of them were close enough to hear the knuckles crack under her tightening fists.

"Easy killer." Ross grinned, showing off his large metal pipe. All of them were carrying one, each of them ready put a dent in any thing or anyone around them, Ruby included. "So, you got the dough?"

"...No." The men were surprised to hear this, unlike Ruby who just went along with it. Knowing her she was just going to let them have her, just shake their hands proudly as they took responsibility of her.

"Excuse me?" Tom muttered in disbelief. "You have a death-wish, bitch? Or maybe you don't wanna see your darling girly again?" He reminded, tapping Ruby's cheek with the edge of the pipe.

"I actually have a counteroffer in mind." She proposed.

"Oh yeah, like what?" Bronx asked.

"Leave now, and everyone gets to live. Plain and simple."

What? Was she serious? Did none of them or their thick muscles, flabby but strong in Bronx's case, tip her off how dangerous they were? Maybe it was the bandanas, that must be it. Why else would she stupidly threaten the people who took her daughter hostage?

"...Pffffffffft, hahahaahaha!" Tom bursted with laughter. "Oh my dust, that's hilarious! Did you guys hear that? I'm gonna kill you bad people if you don't run away! Tehehehe!" He taunted in a squeaky, humiliating tone.

"Take it, or die." She stated coldly.

The three looked at each other again, this time questionably.

"This chick serious?" Tom scoffed as he walked over to her. Side by side, he was still a few inches taller than her, so maybe that was would be enough to intimidate her. "Listen toots, I like ya, so why don't you go get that dough like instructed, and maybe we won't hold onto your daughter after all." Cinder just stared as he continued to scan her body, from her head, ever so slowly to her toes, tracing along the sides with his pipe. "Although maybe... you know, we can be gentlemen when we need to be. Maybe if you kept us some... "company", we could work out a deal?" He grinned lowering his face to her, cusping her chin. "What do you say to that?"

"...I'd say you need to work on your pickup lines." She retorted, grabbing his thumb in the palm of her hand.

"Tch, wise guy eh? Well why don't-" He came to a stop as he tried to pull his thumb away. Not only would it not budge, he couldn't help but notice a strange warmth slowly surrounding it. "H-Hey, what are you d...do...ehh ahhh AHHHH! AHHHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed bloody murder as her hand began to burn.

Not one of them could believe what they were seeing, not even Ruby after all her time spent with Cinder. Here stood a woman, who's anger was matched only by the glow of her dress and the fire singing from her hands. From her grasp, they could all see a bright glow of light, seeing the smoke from the burning flesh and the smell of cooked meat. Little by little, the man fell to his knees as Cinder never relent, slowly roasting his thumb until it began to bleed with each passing second, the blood pouring from the cracks of her squeezed hand. Eventually, it got to the point where there was nothing left to grasp, only the charred smoldering remains of where his thumb used to be, the wound being cauterized with fire, and a screaming man clutching his hand in absolute agony.

"OH MY GOD! MY THUMB! SHE MELTED MY FREAKING THUMB!" He screamed in pain. Cinder gave him none of her attention as she just stepped over him, walking closer to the other two without pause.

"Grrr, get her Bronx!" Ross shouted angrily. He wasn't about to let anyone hurt one of their own, especially not some dame in a dress!

"Raaaaaah!" Bronx charged, pipe at the ready. His weapon was probably the least needed thing at this point. Between his massive size and his surprisingly great speed, he was literally a speeding bull heading straight for her, ready to both pummel and flatten her for hurting his dear friend! "You hurt Tom you-!"

*thud*

"Huh?"

He was confused, only partially surprised in comparison. He assaulted her with the pipe, piling it and all his weight directly at her from above! And what happens? She catches it in the palm of her hand. There was a verily audible thud as it collided with her hand, fingers grasping around it tightly as she refused to let it budge an inch.

Just like before, her dress glowed as her palms ignited into a fiery haze. Slowly, the thug's eyes bulged out as the metal slowly melted before him. It only took a matter of seconds before her hands burned through the melting metal itself, her hand pushing passed it as it grabbed him by the throat. With one burst of energy, she grumbled as the man was shot from her hands by an explosion of flame, zipping passed the head honcho of this little gang and breaking through the wall, leaving only his legs dangling out of charred wall. The only notice of him still being alive was the groans and mumbles of pain he let out every couple seconds.

"Owwwww..."

"Geh, you bitch!" As the leader, he wasn't stupid. If he saw himself outmatched in strength, then he would go to the next best thing and drew his pistol out. No one messes with him and gets away with it!

 ** _*BANG!*_**

Cinder had to admit, it was pretty daring to shoot her like this.

 ** _*BANG!*_**

She wasn't complimenting his tactics of trying to shoot her, something she could easily deflect with the her mere hands like annoying little insects.

 ** _*BANG!*_**

 ** _*BANG!*_**

 ** _*BANG!*_**

She was complimenting his stupidity of trying to shoot someone out in public while there was still daylight out, late or not.

 ** _*BANG!*_**

 ** _*BANG!*_**

He was definitely desperate, or incredibly stupid. But if at this point, there was only one thing he was going to be by the end of this.

 _*click*_

 _*click*_

Dead.

"N-No..." He stuttered in fear backing up. By now, flames and fire were surrounding her by all sides. Each step closer, he didn't see the pissed off mother, but the Grim Reaper himself. "L-Listen, we were just-Urk!" He suddenly choked as Cinder grabbed him by the throat, lifting him off several feet from the air as flame gathered in her other hand.

He messed with her daughter. He messed with her. He messed with her entire family. He did everything in his power to inflict pain on the both of them for nothing more than Lien. She could never see herself in his eyes. Her goals were more direct, more pure. It might not have been some righteous glorious path, but she wasn't collecting Lien to get things for herself or for her own benefit. She did it to bring her one step closer to her goals, her life-long dreams. She wouldn't let anyone get in the way of that.

That's why she couldn't see herself in his eyes. All she could see was the look of a pathetic hasbin, a washed up mug who had nothing in his life.

"N-No..." He begged. "P-Please!"

"Ghhhhhhh!" All she could hear were her fiery hated igniting around her. He was going to suffer. He was going to suffer until the day he regretted his own birth.

"Mmmh..."

But there was that voice that snapped her out of it. The one sound that reminded her of some ounce of her humanity. The small uttering cry of her daughter, the one several feet away from her. She was the only connection she had in her heart that reminded her that she was still human.

She hated this scumbag immensely, she wanted to see the suffering in his eyes!

...But she refused to let her daughter see her like this.

With a deep, calming breath, she receded the surrounding flames, dying them out of what hazard they once were. But at least she could make sure he remembered this.

"Listen to me closely," she whispered, pulling him closer to her face, "if I see your ugly face again... if you come even within a hundred miles of my daughter..." There was no light in her eyes as she glared, only seething, never-ending hatred. "I will melt you slowly, from the IN. SIDE. OUT!" And with one more grunt, she tossed the man to the ground, watching briefly as he scrambled to his feet before fleeing away with fear, grabbing his friend as he ran.

They were stupid, but they wouldn't even think of calling the police on her. She assumed they would be back for the friend still in the wall, but for their sake, they wouldn't dare come across her, or remain on the same continent as her daughter, for the rest of their lives.

With a final breath of relief, she turned to her daughter once more, slowly walking over to her frightened daughter. There was no denying the newfound fear she had of Cinder, not after seeing what she was capable of. But Cinder herself didn't care. All that mattered to her was her daughter's safety.

"It's ok, it's ok." She shushed gently, helping her up a bit. Ruby winced a little as she felt a warmth pass over her, slowly realizing her mother was burning away the knots and tape that bound her together. Yet, even with this, Ruby still couldn't look at her. "Are you alright?"

"...What do you care." She moaned.

"Ruby-"

"No!" She yelled back with tears in her eyes. "I don't care! I don't want to come back to a life filled with li-ahhh!" Ruby cried out in pain as she fell to her feet.

"Ruby!" Her mother looked over the source of the pain, suddenly noticing the sprained ankle Ruby received from her capture. Now she was really regretting letting Ross go without any form of injury. She definitely wanted a limb.

"D-Don't bother!" Ruby sniffled, gathering her belonging again as she forced herself to her feet. She was definitely strong, Cinder admired that, and creative in how she was using the bat as a crux. "I don't need your help."

"Ruby-"

"Just stop! I'm fine! I... I don't need you..." Even with her brave front, Cinder could hear the sadness behind her tone. Either she wasn't forgiving Cinder for what she did, or she was stuck, unable to forgive herself. "I'm going and that's final."

"Well you know what?" Cinder smirked. "You win."

"Don't tell me-...what?" Ruby looked back in amazement. She didn't ever think someone who just took down 3 thugs in half a minute single-handedly would give in so fast.

"I said you win." Cinder smiled, getting back to her own feet as she walked near. "In fact, tell you what. I'll give you as much Lien as you want, as much supplies, food, you name it. I'll give you everything you want, and a first-class ticket to anywhere in the world."

"You... Really?" She was tricking her, she was sure of it! The only question was what was she planning?

"Mh hm. You want to go to the next town, the next continent? You name it." She never lost her smile as she kneeled once more. "Just do one thing for me."

"I'm not going home!" Ruby said, turning away.

"Of course not. Just let me show you something first." She requested, holding out a hang. "And if you still want to leave, I'll never bother you again."

That was too good to be true, there was definitely a trick. Maybe she was going to secretly drug her and drag her back to the penthouse, maybe she was going to lock her up in some room never to see the light of day again! Maybe she was going to try and erase her memory somehow and make it so none of this ever seemed real! All she did know was... she didn't have a choice.

This was her one and only chance of getting everything else out of it if she did agree, and Cinder wouldn't let her go easily until she agreed. It was sort of a one-sided deal, but with more to gain than she did to lose. All she had to do was take her hand and accept it.

And after that, she would never have to see them again.

...

...

It was about a thirty-minute walk back to one of the warehouses. With each passing second, Ruby's curiosity was only matched by the fear she felt brewing. She as positive this was some sort of trick, or she was going to lock Ruby away somewhere around here for the rest of her life. She knew she herself was another more than a loose-end, someone who knew too much that couldn't be trusted to remain silent of it. Nothing she told Cinder would get through to her, she was sure, so it was pointless to even try.

Even as she carried Ruby all the way to the Warehouse herself, the injured girl unable to walk properly due to the injury.

After what felt like forever, Cinder awed as she finally came across a particular white door, one Ruby never recognized before.

"What is this?" Ruby asked.

"Your present." Cinder said back with a smile.

"I don't want anything-"

"Ruby." Nothing she said since meeting her was with any sort of contempt. It was nothing but a warm, comforting, smile. "Please."

"...Fine. But I'm leaving after this, ok?"

"Whatever you say." She nodded, opening the door.

Before her, she saw nothing really out of the ordinary. She saw Neo, her used-to-be-sister, who looked briefly ecstatic to see her beloved sister once more, but a simple gesture from Cinder got her to move a few feet away. It still pained Ruby honestly. To see one of the closest people around her being in pain like her, even if it wasn't as much. Maybe when this was all over, when she said her final goodbye, she could at least apologize, and possibly thank them for all their time.

Neither of which she would need though once she saw the white wardrobe before her.

"What is this?" Ruby asked as Cinder placed her before the furniture.

"Close your eyes. Please." She quested.

"Cinder, I don't-"

"Look, if I do anything suspicious... Neo, if I try anything funny, be sure to restrain me, ok?" A sincere nod, followed by a salute, was all Ruby needed to see. With a sigh, Ruby gave in and closed her eyes. She heard what appeared to be sound of shuffling and fumbling with drawers, but after another few moments, the sound stopped. "Ok, you can open now." When she did, she was met with a sight she never expected, one that took her a few seconds to realize.

"M-Mom?" She questioned.

To be more accurate, it wasn't her physical mother, but a picture of her. A bright, cheerful mother who was cradling a small baby in a hospital bed. It was hard to tell at first glance, but in her arms she was holding a small infant, one she could only recognize all too easily. Herself.

"It was the only picture I could find of her, sweetie." Cinder muttered with regret. Even if she did know who her parents were, it's not like she could just walk up and ask them out of nowhere without the least bit of suspicion. "I checked numerous hospitals, numerous records, and only one of them had any photos of her. It took over three years after I found you just to find that one alone."

As expected, she could see the small tears forming in Ruby's eyes as she grasped the pictures, small droplets dripping to the paper itself. It was hurting her to see this, more than her ankle. But it was something she needed to show her, she was tired of the lies as much as she was.

"C-Cinder, I... T-Thank you and all that, b-but-"

*rustle*

"Ah-!"

Ruby nearly jumped as she was blanketed under a verily large cloth. At first, she panicked thinking Cinder had tricked her again, but after a few moments of panic she found a source of light leading her head out of it. Observing herself once more, she realized what was draped over her. A hood. Not just a hood, but a very large one. The hood itself stretched way past her feet, at least a good foot of it covering the ground. But there was something strangely familiar about the warm white fabric draped across her, something reminiscent about it.

"What... What is-"

"It was your mother's." Cinder stated. There was no hint of a lie in her voice, and the familiarity of this strange cloak only bringing back warm feelings of a woman's familiar touch. "The day I found you Ruby, the day I found your mother dying, this was the very cloak she was wearing."

"So you stole it." As much as she hated to admit it, Cinder could only give a small smile as she sat before her.

"I guess so. But I never stole it for myself. It was the one thing I could bring back of your mother's, something that had belonged to her, and I was sure she'd want you to have it."

"Really...?"

"Really." Cinder nodded. "I wanted to give it to you sooner. Maybe I wouldn't have revealed the truth by then, but I wanted you to have something to keep your real mother close. But when I got it from your mother's...when I came back for anything she had for you, the thing was battered and torn beyond recognition. I almost gave up trying to restore it." She looked over to the older sibling once more, "But to my surprise, we apparently had a great fashion designer with us." Neo cheekily grinned as she stuck out her tongue, giving two fingers for victory. She was just glad she managed to finish it completely within the last few minutes before Cinder called texted her.

There was an emptying silence as Ruby just froze. The tip of the hood dangled over half her face, so all Cinder could see of her at the time was a perplexed look of uncertainty from her mouth. But the trembling hand clutching the hood, the one she kept close to her heart, gave her all she needed to see.

"Do you remember when you were six, and you had a fever so bad that you were bedridden for three days?" Cinder reminded.

"Y-Yeah..." Ruby's voice trembled as she sniffed. "You said... Y-You said you were loving me so much that your warmth was making me sick..."

"And do you remember what happened after you got better? When I was stuck with a fever the following month?"

"Yeah. I said...tch..." Cinder continued to smile warmly even as she saw the trickle of tears flowing down Ruby's cheek. "I said I was loving you so much... Ngh..." She sniffled. "A-And... And I..."

"And you were crying and crying because you thought you were making me sick." She chuckled. "I felt so embarrassed and guilty because you were blaming yourself, thinking I caught your fever. So any time I was sick, I just tried my best to ignore it so you wouldn't cry." She wiped the side of Ruby's face gently, moving slowly so as to not scare the girl anymore, or make her think she was going to try and pull some trick.

She didn't know what to do, neither of them did. There was only a void of silence that surrounded them as both girls took in what they shared. Cinder couldn't push her any further. If she wanted to leave, she was going to have to accept it, no argument. At least she managed to muster the courage and give her the one thing she wanted before she left them.

"...I'm sorry..." Ruby hiccuped. Nothing but a tearing smile grew on Cinder's face. Perhaps a happy ending wasn't impossible after all.

"Ruby, it's okay-"

"No!" Ruby shouted showing her face. There was no longer any anger behind it, but there was an undeniable flow of sadness and regret. "I'm...sniff... I'm sorry for being such a burden!" She cried lowering her head.

Now Cinder was really lost. She just glanced back at Neo, the girl shrugging in return, before looking back to her. "Burden? Sweetie, what are you talking about?"

"Don't lie again, you said you wouldn't!" Ruby cried. "Those guys told me everything! How I was a burden to you, how I made your life even more miserable... How... How you were only pretending to love me because you felt guilty from what happened to my mom...ech..."

"They said... Oh my dust..." She rolled her eyes with a face palm, rubbing the frustration out of her mind. This was it. This was the true heart of the matter. Ruby wasn't just mad about her whole life, she wasn't frustrated with all the lies. She was angry with herself because she thought she was being nothing but a royal pain to everything in Cinder's life. "When I find those two... Oh baby, look..." Cinder embraced her in a warm hug, cradling her as she wiped her tears.

"You want to know the whole truth? All my life, I had had nothing but hardships, despair, nothing but grief. So I moved away from it and sought to only lookout for myself. And somewhere along those lines, I ended up taking you into my life. And it only made my life harder from there." Ruby looked up as she listened tearily to her mother's tale. "There were days I grew headaches, days I wanted nothing more than to pull my hair out, days I wished I could just go back to sleep and pretend it was all a dream."

"I tch... I knew it..." Ruby cried. She really was a burden to her mother!

"But," she continued, "there are days I wish I could repeat forever. The first day you called me Mama, the day you drew me your first picture, every day I got to spend with you all to myself," she paused, smiling as Neo kneeled near them, "and Neo. Those are the days I wish I could relive over and over again, even for just a second. And I only have those days because you came into my world."

"S-Still..." Ruby hiccuped. "I-I'm sorry...F-For what I sa..said..."

"No, Ruby." Out of all of this, she absolutely refused to let Ruby blame herself for this last ounce of regret. "You had every right to be angry. I lied to you, every day of your life, even after the hard times you've suffered and the friends you lost, and never had the courage to tell you the truth. I hit you, and for every second of my life, I'm going to wish for nothing more than being able to go back and stop that moment from ever happening again. I hit you, and nothing I say or do will ever show you how sorry I am." The mother herself found tears dripping from her own eyes.

"B-But still-"

"No. That was my fault Ruby, ok? I lied to you, I lied about a lot of things. Maybe I never would've told you the truth if you never discovered it yourself, maybe I would've been too scared and just hoped you never would. I would just be lying to you every day from then. And yes, when I took you in it was out of respect for your mother, because I was too slow and unable to get to her in time, to rescue the both of you that night. But I need you to know one thing, the only thing I swear is the truth." Ruby sniffled once more as she looked up to Cinder again, face flushed from the tears. "I have always loved. And I will never lie to you about that!"

"Tch... Ngh...I'M SORRY MAMAAAAAA!" Ruby bawled as she hugged onto Cinder's chest, crying her eyes out.

No other words could be spoken at that moment. The only thing Cinder could do for herself was burst into tears as she hugged her daughter tightly, pulling Neo in as well as the twin-colored girl embraced Ruby too.

Ruby was angry. Not at Cin- her mother, but at herself. Why was she so stupid?! Why did she think for a single moment that Cinder wasn't her mother? Sure, she never gave birth to her. She never had any right to take Ruby away that night, even if it was to save her life. But ever since she came into her life, she's done nothing more than to love Ruby, showering her with affection and doing everything in existence to ensure Ruby had nothing but absolute happiness.

Sure, there were roadblocks in her life, both Ruby's own and Cinder's, but they managed to get through it because they were family, because they loved each other, Neo included. It didn't matter if everything was like, a simple fake. It was a fake to make sure Ruby was happy, and one her mother regretted ever putting her through. Yet not a moment would go by where she wished this moment didn't last forever. She wanted nothing more than to feel the warm embrace of her daughters that no amount of flame ever could.

This was never going to be a birthday any of them would ever forget. And you know what? Cinder would never want to.

...

...

"Zzz...zzz..." Cinder smiled as she looked down. The day's event had taken it's toll on the family, including Roman who was slumped over the cushioned chair as he snored.

This was nice. All of it was nice. Seeing Neo and Ruby cuddled up before them on the couch, watching them sleeping in their pajamas as the end credits of the movie played on the TV. There would be some bumps in their life, there was no doubt. After all, it wouldn't really be living if every day was nothing but ease, right? Besides, some bumps were good too from time to time. And Ruby loved no gift more than her family, and the white cloak draped around her. This way, she could always feel close to both her families, both which were real.

The birthday they had was short upon their return, bringing Ruby all the way upstairs and patching up her injured ankle, but it was still a blast to be had. They had the best cake in forever, and Ruby barely cared anything for her gifts, satisfied with what she had. And to end it all, they all watched a movie on the large screen TV. All of this eventually resulted in everyone falling asleep on the spot, barely any of them managing to stay awake halfway through the movie. First it was Ruby, who was understandably exhausted, then Neo who fell asleep to the comforting sound of Ruby's snore. Then eventually Roman, who just watched both girls with a small smile, dozed off too. And pretty soon, Cinder would find herself dropping on the spot too.

 _*knock*_

 _*knock*_

 _Ugh, seriously? What kind of bozo would be disturbing them at this time?_ With nothing more than a silent moan, Cinder gently eased her way off the couch, careful not to disturb anyone, before tiptoeing quietly to the door.

"Hell-" She could only blink at the familiar man before her, the man looking somewhat guilty as he scratched his head. "-o?"

"Oh, hey, uhhhh..." Qrow blushed slightly as he turned away. Looking down herself Cinder could only blush as she quickly tied her bathrobe quickly, quietly shutting the door behind her. Tonight was the first time in awhile they took a bath together and it was peaceful.

The girls of course. Not Roman.

"What are you doing here?" She whispered.

"Look, uhh... I just wanted to apologize for earlier, I kinda felt like we ended things a bit rough last time..." He explained. She could at least understand that much.

"No, it's..." Cinder breathed deeply. "H-How did you find out where I was, anyway?"

"Eh, you can thank the barkeep for that. I told him a lie and said to put it on your room number, found out you were living up the penthouse." He explained. "I didn't have him charge it of course, that was just a joke."

"I-I see... Well... Thank you." Out of the ways this usually ended, being thanked was one of the last things he expected.

"Uhhh huh? For what?"

"For the advice earlier." She started blushing slightly once more, but this time out of gratitude. "You were right. I just had to be direct and everything."

"Hmph, well I'm glad everything worked out for ya." He smiled. She really couldn't tell if he was just trying to play the smooth and easy route, but for once he didn't care. "Take it everyone's asleep?"

"Yeah, we're all in for the night." A small frown grew underneath her smile. "I've been thinking about... I think I'm going to move her in with... with my mother for awhile. Just until I get my life back on track."

"Are either of you going to be happy with that?"

"Her? ... I don't know, honestly. But I'll see her every weekend, and I'm going to make sure she has her sister with her the whole time so she's never depressed."

"But that's not what I said." He repeated. "I said are either of you going to be happy with that?"

"Honestly?" It hurt. It honestly did hurt. "No. I'm sad just thinking about it. But after all that's happened, it's what I deserve for all I've done."

"Wow that's incredibly selfish."

"Huh?" Out of any choice of words, those were the very last things expected.

"You want to wallow in your misery, that's fine. You want to be sad, think you're a bad person for whatever you did? Go ahead. I don't know, maybe you deserve it. But don't start thinking of pushing yourself away from your family because you deserve it. If you don't take their feelings into consideration, don't think about how they'll feel beforehand, you'll wind up right back where you started."

"...Hmhm," Cinder chuckled lightly, "spoken like a true poet."

"Heh, like that? I got a million of 'em." He laughed.

"Well, I'll be thinking about that. Anyway, thanks for the advice too."

"Hey, I did nothing gorgeous." He chuckled, leaning on the wall. "I just spouted nonsense. You were the one who decided to use it. Give yourself some credit."

"Yeah, well..." She couldn't resist this time, fully in her control.

*peck*

That time she intended to kiss him, just slightly on the cheek. It still didn't prevent any blush from growing on either's face.

"Thank you... and goodnight." She waved, giving him a smile before returning to her penthouse for the night.

Qrow could do nothing else but smirk, rubbing the small spot on his cheek where the girl kissed him. He had to admit, there was a strange attraction he found himself drawn to her towards. It wasn't just her pretty face, it wasn't just the curvy bod. Oh no no no, there was something else behind it all. Some sort of look about her, some sort of invisible force. He couldn't figure out why, but something was drawing the two together, like they had some connection neither of them were aware of.

Or maybe it was just him.

Still, he made a pretty lady smile. That was a victory in his book, and something he could chalk on the record for the rest of his days. And as far as he cared strolling down the halls, there was only one thing on his mind.

"I knew she digged me."

...

...

...

 ** _A/N: And with that, we can finally bring the pre-volume series to an end ^^ Don't worry to anyone who loved the fluff and loved the cuteness- I'll do a bonus chapter from time to time just for fun, we'll see plenty of kid and possibly toddler/baby ruby if people want it enough :P_**

 ** _I'd like to thank again the people who supported this fic. Honestly, I was a little surprised by the reviews, like legitimately surprised. Half of them were negative, and half of them were positive. I don't think I ever came to a 50/50 shot so much before :/!_**

 ** _But alas, I've made my decision. I'm keeping the story the way it is. I can't go to changing it just because several people want it "this way" or "that way", i need to keep it the way intended or it'll lose it's consistency. Now am i saying I won't listen to feedback? No. If i get told maybe I should change this, or had an error over here, I'll gladly listen. I'll also listen to suggestions about story ideas/chapters if anyone's interested :P!_**

 ** _Till then, thanks everyone who supported this till now, and sorry for the earlier rant. Hope you all enjoy the next chapter!_**

 ** _VOLUME 1, EPISODE 1, HERE WE COME!_**


	23. Vol 1 Episode 1: Ruby Fall

**_A/N: 10K words Pre-Author's notes folks, so we got a nice chunky chapter ^^._**

 ** _Ah, i 'll be honest. I didn't think I'd get here X) I honestly thought I would've lost the drive to keep writing till now, but here we are! Episode ooooooone ^^!_**

 ** _Now a few things to point out before we begin. There's going to be some changes-_**

 ** _Followers: *un-follow*_**

 ** _Come back, come back, that's just a given X(! Some scenes may be altered, changed, cut out completely, and added with new ones. But I'm still going to keep it abouuuut 70-80% of the source material, sooooo changes shouldn't affect...oh who am I kidding? ruby's purpose here is enough of a change alone, so a LOTS gonna change XP._**

 ** _Huff, anyway, anything from this point will be by the books and by the episode. Some bits of the series will be spoiled early on, so if you have yet to watch rwby and don't wish to be spoiled...WHY ARE YOU READNG THESE FANFICS XD?!_**

 ** _I'd also like to apologize to some of the users who were offended with yesterday's rant, one particular guest who might've thought I was referring to him (unless he was the very first reviewer of the chapter before it in which case... well sorry XP) I extend this to everyone except to a guest user by the name of "Gran", mostly cause I'm sure he IS the troll guy from the previous chapter._**

 ** _Either way, I apologize for the rant- I was actually just trying to point out a flaw with the argument/criticism about a piece being "forced", mostly since i feel like a lot of parts could've been pointed out as such and yet no one had a problem with. Also, as a reminder, i had the last 2 chapters done at once and was originally planning on putting them into one, but after discussing with some people, we came to the conclusion that no one would like to read a 20k chapter and thought splitting it down the middle was a better idea._**

 ** _Clearly I was wrong. It probably would've been better to read it as a whole so people didn't get upset with the previous one's issue._**

 ** _Either way, sorry to those critics here and there. I do accept criticism and advice here and there, provided their done nicely like Mizore's and such, and not meant to actually bully/troll the author (sorry for bringing that up again, just really can't stand it: I know a kid who actually got bullied/trolled to the point of suicide so I take it seriously...)_**

 ** _So with that said, here's me hoping you enjoy this glorious, first episode!_**

...

...

...

She continued to frown as she sat in the chair, the woman behind her continuing to walk around her and the table in the detention center. This seemed like a rather backwards response, at least when it came to the cartoons and comics she's read. When a hero comes out of nowhere and stops a burglary in progress, usually the correct response was to congratulate them or possibly even reward them, not place them under arrest and have them taken into a detention center where they're locked up.

Better yet, why was this the first response they came to upon meeting her? Why wasn't it something like "Hey complete and total stranger, thanks for saving the day! Any chance you could lower your hood so I could see the face of our heroic savior"? Because if this really is how they treat fellow heroes, then by god the justice system is totally screwed up! Did they care for her name? No. Did they care to see her face? That's a laugh. If this is how screwed up things were, then she's more than surprised she wasn't shot on sight at this rate.

Then again, it was only one bloody-stupid huntress who both helped her and arrested her, so it was hard to tell if she even had any firearms at the time. She is so not letting her give her an autograph after this!

"I hope you realize your actions tonight will not be taken lightly, young lady." The Huntress talked down. "You put yourself and others in great danger."

"But they started it!" The teen complained. "Besides, what was I supposed to do? Just stand back and let them take anything they wanted?"

"If it were up to me, you'd be sent home." The Huntress commented. "With a pat on the back..." For a brief moment, the teen smiled at this. "And a slap on the wrist!" She snapped, slamming her riding crop on the tabletop, crumbling the young teen's moment of joy. "But... There is someone here who would like to meet you."

"Someone... wants to meet me?" She wondered.

Her answers came in the form of a seemingly middle-aged man with silver hair. She couldn't tell from the small glasses covering the front, but he did seem to have brown eyes too. He was a rather mysterious-looking individual, which is possibly saying a lot compared to a young teen who stopped a Dust Shop robbery out of nowhere, but the air around him was something of an enigma. His wore a strange combination of a black suit over a buttoned best and a green shirt, his pants being just as dark as the rest of his outfit. And while he did have some appearance of youth to him, he carried around a small cane. The only color coming from his questionable outfit was the green shirt that was propped out from under his vest.

But none of that mattered, none of it was important. There was only one real eye grabber to him that truly caught her attention.

He was carrying a plate full of warm cookies!

"Hello there." He greeted casually.

"Um... hi." The teen nodded back, watching as he took a seat on the opposite end. It was taking all of her focus and strong will to resist any interest from the cookies.

The man himself found her appearance rather interesting, in regards to her outfit at least. He couldn't see the black blouse she was wearing underneath, but the main attention grabber was the White hood cloak around her, the one that concealed her face from the nose down. Even after the scrabble she got into with the crooks at the Dust Shop that evening, there was hardly a scratch on it. Either the cloak itself was possibly lined with dust for protection, or she truly cared for it and took the time clean it after her arrest.

"Come now, no need to be shy." He smiled, setting the plate before her. "Can I look at the face of our night's savior?"

"O-Oh! Sorry!" She actually wasn't intending to keep her face concealed or anything, it's just that after wearing it for so much time, keeping the hood on felt natural. It was with one gentle pull she revealed the rest of her face, giving the mysterious man a better look at her eyes and the red trim around her dark black hair. She started regretting the revelation as the man leaned in a little further, studying her face long enough to leave a faint blush.

"You have... silver eyes." He stated.

"Huh? O-Oh, the eyes yeah." She replied, rubbing the edge of her eye. It was at this time the woman walked to his side displaying footage of the teen's heroic battle against the crooks who robbed tonight's shop on a large digital monitor.

"So. Where did you learn to do this?" He asked curiously, gesturing to the footage.

"Oh... umm... in the woods." She answered. The two adults gave each other a questionable look, the man adjusting his glasses slightly as he looked back to her.

"The woods you say?" There was a hint of doubt in his voice.

"W-Well, kinda... yeah... I mean..." It was times like this she remembered one of life's many lessons.

 _The best lies are the truths mixed with the lies._

"I learned the basics from my family. Mom, sis, grandma, uncles..." She explained.

"Really?" He still sounded questionable but there was less doubt than before. "Your family taught you?"

"Uh huh. They were some of the only people I knew growing up."

"You don't say..." He took a sip of his drink as he examined the contents of a folder handed to him. "You must not be from around here then. We don't have any records of you or your family miss... I'm sorry, what did you say your name was again?"

"It's Ruby. Ruby Fall."

"Ruby Fall..." He repeated, scratching his chin. "It sounds like a nice name."

"Thank you." She nodded back.

"But regarding your family and your training, you said you trained in the woods?"

"Yeah, w-well... by myself really..." She frowned at this as she lowered her head to the left. "I had a... bit of a falling out with my family a few years ago... haven't seen them since."

"Interesting... And you've been living on your own ever sense?"

"Y-Yes sir. I might've stopped by the occasional house now and then, but mostly I've been on my own."

"And how long would you say since you last saw them?"

"...Five years..." She mumbled.

"Five years?!" The Huntress exclaimed with disbelief. "Honestly child, do you truly expect us to-"

"Alright, calm down." The man gestured politely. "It would explain a few things, mostly dealing with the lack of official records. But what I can't comprehend is that weapon you were using. That scythe, was it?"

"Do you like it? I call it the Crescent Flame. It's a dust-bladed scythe that-"

"That's fine, I'm not questioning the schematics of it. I would just like to know where you learned to fight like that, with that weapon I mean." He clarified.

"Oh, that all?" She moaned slightly at his lack of interest. If there was one of several big things she loved, it was talking about weapons. "Well, most of it was self-taught on time alone, but the real basics in wielding it and all were taught by my family. They always went on and on about "becoming one with the blade" and "fight along with the blade, not against it" and so forth."

"And, that would mean you received your weapon when you were...?" He wondered. This was the part she was most nervous about answering.

"...About 9 or so, I think?" She muttered.

"Bah, what rubbish." The Huntress scoffed as she leaned against the wall. "How do you propose anyone giving a weapon to such a young child?"

"W-Well, uhh..." Ruby poked her fingers nervously, shifting her eyes away. "About that part, you see umm...right before I ran away... they didn't exactly..."

"You stole it from them, didn't you?" Her silence was all he needed to hear. She couldn't tell whether his main focus was on the her alone or on the fighting recorded from the security footage. Half the time he glanced over to her, but even when he was asking the questions, he was mostly focusing on the action. He was taking all this unlikely information really well, or he was more focused on the fighting than the answers.

To be fair, she would've been too.

"I'm sorry..."

"It's alright, you're not in trouble for that." He assured with a smile. "No police report or records came from anyone claiming they lost a scythe. So either they didn't care about the scythe, or they didn't care about you."

"Yeah... That's... Kinda why I left." She rubbed her shoulder comfortingly. "They were always so focused on their work more and just making sure I followed in their footsteps. So one day I just had enough of this and took off."

"I understand," he replied, finally giving her his full attention, "some families are harder to live with than others, believe me."

"But... Why were you so interested in the scythe then?" It did bring up a good point. For someone who didn't seem concerned about her secret history, the lack of records, or no problems from someone claiming they stole a destructive weapon, he was asking a lot of questions about it.

"I was just curious is all. It's just that I've only ever seen one other scythe-weilder of that skill before. A dusty old crow..." He commented, much to her surprise.

"Really?" For a moment, she actually thought he was referring to a literal bird. "Huh... I guess I'm not the only one with good taste then, huh?" She joked.

"Hmhm, I suppose not." He couldn't help but notice how she kept shifting her eyes between him and the plate of goodies he brought in.

This interrogation was becoming more and more impossible with each passing second. Lock her up with a life sentence, put her in the electric chair, hang her by her entrails! But for the love of god, someone let her have those cookies she couldn't take her eyes off of!

"Please, feel free to help yourself." He offered.

"...Well maybe just one." She didn't say this till after she scarfed down the first ten. The Huntress looked more surprised than ever at the healthy appetite she appeared to have. Then again, if this teen has been living on her own for who knows how long, food must've been hard to come by.

"So tell me," he continued, "what was an adorable little girl doing at a Dust Shop in the middle of the night?"

It was only for an instant, something he would've missed if he so much as blinked. But for a brief moment, he saw a small twinge in the corner of Ruby's eyes. It wasn't one out of fear or anxiety, but nervousness. And it all drew to a very important question.

"What did she have to be nervous about?"

"O-Oh, that? Well... being on the road and everything... I do a few odd jobs from time to time where I can. Sometimes it's just cleaning, other times it's... taking care of a Grimm. Usually only one or two at most though, I'm still rough around the edges when it comes to groups." She explained. "And I need dust from time to time to power up my scythe, so I was just browsing the store when those goons showed up."

"Ah yes, those goons..." The man scrolled through the video until he came across a very particular man out of the group, one with orange hair, a white suit and a top hat, and the cane he was using as his weapon. "Do you know this man here?"

"Him?" Ruby tapped her chin for a bit. "I... think I've seen him somewhere, but I don't know who he is."

"Apparently his name is Roman Torchwick." He stated. "He's a crime boss who's been stealing from a large number of Dust Shops around town. Always taking the Dust, but never the money."

"Then he can't be that bad if he's just taking the merchandise, right? I mean, he's not hurting anyone he shoplifts, and the workers would be sooner out of business if he just stole the money. At least this way their insurance will cover for it..." She suddenly noticed the peculiar gaze he was giving her. It took her a few seconds before she realized what she just said so casually. "N-Not that I'm siding with him or anything! I-I mean anyone with that much dust can't be up to any good, right?" She waved her arms, slightly worried.

"...Indeed." He nodded in agreement, turning off the video at long last. "What I would also like to know Ruby is this. Why did you confront those robbers yourself? Why not simply slip by unnoticed or hide until it passed over? Did you expect some reward for your efforts or something?"

"Well... to be honest..." She took a deep breath before looking back to him. "One of my life's dreams is to become a hero."

"A hero?" He replied raising a brow.

"Yeah. You know, heroes? Saving the innocents, defeating the bad guys... I guess if I had to get more technical than that... I just hate seeing people getting bullied. I mean, really hate it."

"Is that so?" He grinned as he removed his spectacles, wiping them a little with his sleeve. "Tell me, Ruby Fall. Do you know who I am?"

"Um..." She always hated these questions. If someone ever asked you if you knew them, they would either get really angry if you didn't get the answer right, or they would find it truly insulting. "Not of the top of my head, but..." She looked over to the older lady, the one who continued to glare at her irritated. "I know she's at least a huntress, and judging by your clothes, I would have to guess... maybe a teacher?"

"Close, Miss Fall, very close. Tell me, if I said her name was Glynda Goodwitch, then would you know me?" Almost instantly Ruby's eyes shot open.

"G-Glynda Goodwi- THE Glynda Goodwitch?" She did everything in her power to keep from jumping from her seat. It was only upon further realization that she discovered who this man was. "T-Then... You must be Professor Ozpin! The Headmaster of Beacon Academy!"

"The very same." He confirmed standing up. "And now, I would like to know Miss Fall-"

"O-Oh, please. Call me Ruby."

"I'm sorry, Ruby. Now tell me Ruby, heroes need to be trained. And I see a great deal of potential in you. So..."

"So...?"

"Would you like to enroll at Beacon Academy?"

"WHAT?!" Both Ruby and Glynda yelled simultaneously, one with shock and the other with glee.

"You really mean it?!" She couldn't believe this, it was like a dream come true!

"Well, you would have to take a written exam first, tomorrow at the latest, since we don't have any previous academic records." He added. "But I'm sure you'll pass through those, and then it'll be a signature agreement to officially enroll you. How does that sound?"

"Ohhhh thank you!" She was unable to resist, throwing her arms around him in a tight hug. Ozpin could only chuckle at the sight, looking back to an unamused Glynda who could only turn away. "THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU! Oooh, you don't know how much this means-! Huuuuuh! I gotta get a pencil! And some pens! And-"

"They'll be provided for you when you take the written exam tomorrow. I trust you have somewhere to stay for the evening?"

"Oh, yeah! Don't worry. I spend the nights at a hotel when I can afford it!" She couldn't contain her seeming excitement, body jittering even after he opened the door.

"Alright, alright. Now, get some sleep. Meet me here tomorrow at 8:30 A.M. sharp, and we'll get your tests underway." He instructed.

"Yes! Yes! Yes! Thank youuuuuu!" She cheered, bursting out the door as she echoed through the halls.

At the same time, Glynda just stood there dumbfounded. Not a single bit of her could believe anything the Professor just did. Enrolling a complete stranger by means of a written exam, one who caused property damage during her fight with Roman and with so many allegations against her, and all he could do was just go back to watching the footage?! Why was he acting so weird? Nothing about this girl made any sense to her, and even if he was a kind and considerate man, he should have decency to know when something is up!

"Professor Ozpin, you can't be serious!" She yelled. "You actually believe anything this girl is saying to you?!"

"Not one bit." Just like that, all the anger and doubt she had in her was flushed out and replaced by confusion.

"What?"

"Don't get me wrong, Ms. Goodwitch, I do believe one or two things about her, but overall I can't help but find it all suspicious. And most of the details about her don't even add up."

"What do you mean?" She knew there was something doubtful about Ruby, but Ozpin not only knew about that, but found inconsistencies with her stories at he same time. Nothing of his mannerism made her second-guess that.

"For starters, it's those silver eyes she has." He started. "That's a rare gene to be passed down from person to person, and in all my life, I only ever knew one other person who had that gift. Even then, that's the least suspicious aspect about her."

"As opposed to...?" She looked over his shoulder as he watched the security footage. She couldn't help but notice how he kept focusing on it throughout the entire conversation, something about the fighting that only he could notice.

"Tell me something first, Glynda." He requested looking back. "How many fights have you ever been a part of? Not counting the Grimm, of course."

"Fights? Well... it would depend in what manner you're referring to." She replied. "I suppose a couple dozen or so-"

"Not counting sparing, tournaments, and the works." He quickly added.

"Oh. Then in that case... I suppose only a handful, not counting tonight's. Why?"

"Because I've seen hundreds of fights in my lifetime," he said returning to the video, "and I do mean, hundreds. And when you see as many as I do, you start to notice a very subtle difference between real fights and... staged."

"Staged?" She silently gasped before turning to the door. "Then... Do you mean-"

"It's nothing more than an assumption from my experiences of course, but if you take it into account with her testimonies and answers, they still don't make sense." He leaned back in his chair as he pondered all the inconsistencies and her words. "She says she's been on the road for several years, and while I won't deny the definite possibility, her cloak was way too clean for such a state. Secondly, it's that weapon of hers. I might be inclined to believe her fighting style was self taught, but there is no way her family could've possibly taught her how to use Dust on it so expertly."

He focused once more on a certain clip of the recording, rewinding it for the dozenth time. In the midst of the fight, the blade on the end of the scythe ignited as she twirled it about, enshrouding her into a ball of flame. No sooner had she been enveloped, she quickly burst from the top of the, the flames skyrocketing her not the air as she glide upon the winds like a missile. And in one sweeping motion, she slammed the destructive weapon to the ground before the crooks discharging a massive explosion of energy, the resulting blast being the key detail of Ruby's property damage.

While it didn't thankfully kill anyone nor injure any of the civilians, it still left a decent-sized crater in the road, not to mention shattering several windows of each of the surrounding buildings and melting two light poles on the sidewalk.

"She could claim it as much as she wants, but, experience or not, she couldn't possibly know how to customize her scythe with so much dust without possibly exploding the weapon, and herself with it."

"Please don't tell me there's more." She hoped.

"I'm afraid so."

Once again, he scrolled through the security footage until he came upon one scene of particular interest. It wasn't very much in comparison of the others, taking place shortly after Ruby had knocked out all of the robbers save for Roman himself. It was hard to make out any particular details or what they were saying, with Ruby being far away and Roman's face being covered with the camera. Following a few more seconds of dialogue, Roman threw one of the large dust crystals over by Ruby's feet before shooting it with his cane.

Fortunately, the hooded girl herself was fine as she came out if with only a coughing fit from the smoke. After looking around for a few more seconds, she took off running in the direction Roman escaped. But it was those few moments she spoke silently, regardless of how far, that really took Ozpin's interest.

"Right there." He instructed, quickly pausing the video. "Zoom in and enhance the audio." Every moment he instructed her left her with another cup of unease and worry, quickly jotting down and editing the footage with her device. He was clearly on top of everything, yet he showed little to no interest of it during the interrogation.

It was just from that one muffled line of audio that she understood his point, just not why it was important.

"Where did Roman go?" Ruby spoke before the video paused.

"I don't get it, what...Oh..." She remembered the exact words.

 _"Do you know this man here?"_

 _"Him?" Ruby tapped her chin for a bit. "I... think I've seen him somewhere, but I don't know who he is."_

 _"Apparently his name is Roman Torchwick." He stated. "He's a crime boss who's been stealing from a large number of Dust Shops around town. Always taking the Dust, but never the money."_

"Ozpin, you've lost me." This didn't make any sense. She could understand everything he was saying, that wasn't the problem. "If you're telling me what I think you are, then they staged that entire robbery from the very beginning. But why would you let her go then after all this evidence?"

Ozpin sighed in reluctance as he rubbed his eyes. He understood everything distressing her, everything wrong with his choices up until the last several minutes. Everything behind it came together perfectly, they could simply arrest her without any sort of trouble, at least to Glynda's understanding. There were just too many issues behind the scenes, however, that she had yet to pay attention. Very behind the scene matters.

"Because even with all this proof, there's just as many issues as there is evidence." He replied. "Even with the footage, it's nothing concrete. She could just state she forgot it in the moment and heard it once during the fight. Not all the security footage made it after all." Which was the saddest of realities. Not-too coincidentally, shortly after Ruby left the view of the Camera's recording, all of the devices watching the event were surprisingly destroyed, by means of fire and unlike Ruby's. "On top of that, Ruby herself pertains to two other issues. The most notable of them being... the other issue."

"Which issue are you talking about?" It was times like this Glynda questioned her job here. If there was ever only one annoyance she had with Ozpin, it was how he would sometimes speak in mysteries while knowing full well the answer behind them.

"I mean the _other_ , issue." It was with the shift of his gaze that she finally understood the real heart of the matter.

"You mean... Amber?" The silence that followed as he drank his tea told her everything she needed.

"Do you remember what he said? Out of the many assailants, there was one in particular-"

"Donning a white cape..." There was no possible force that could make her believe it. Whether or not she wanted to though didn't matter. "Then... you don't think..."

"To come across someone with that exact description, who just happened to be passing through before meeting up like this... It'd be easier to believe if it wasn't, wouldn't it?"

"Ozpin, I get it, ok? There's way too many circumstances behind all this, and we can't involve the police or tip off to the rest of the world about the maidens." Glynda had no argument with any of said details. The more who knew about the maidens, the more threats that could come to claim her beloved powers. "So why don't I just round up several of our staff members and track this girl down? We can put her under lock and key discreetly then."

"That was my exact plan too, until I saw her eyes." He sighed. "Those eyes just made all this more complicated."

"...It's because of who had them before, isn't it?" She didn't even need to see his nod. That was the one and only thing he mentioned before any of this, before this long explanation of why they just couldn't arrest her really took matter.

"If they belong exactly who I think to, then that mean's she's her daughter." He revealed, drinking the rest of his tea. "And, that would practically mean he's her uncle, and I'm aware of a certain father she still has that is alive. Even with the state of the world being what it is, neither of them would be too happy if they found out we not only imprisoned her daughter, but kept her a secret as well."

"From only the father, right?" She corrected. "Qrow should have an idea who it is already, shouldn't he? He is the one who saw her helping attack the maiden after all."

"To an extent, yes. But he never got a clear look of her face, so he prefers not getting his or Tai's hopes up." Which did make sense. How was anyone supposed to feel that someone they cared about all their life was not only still alive, but was working for the completely wrong side of things! Not to mention if everything they discovered did add up perfectly, there was no way Ruby herself would follow up and reveal anything she knew about those she was working for.

"Ok, you know what? Fine." Glynda surrendered the argument. "You don't want to arrest her. You don't want to hide her away somewhere she can't do any harm. I get it. But then why in dust's name would you possibly enroll her to Beacon of all things? There's no way she doesn't know the maiden is there, it all adds up too well."

"To keep an eye on her." He retorted in an almost-ropotic manner. "If we leave her on her way now, we don't know what she'll do next or how many plans they could hatch in order to receive some form of enrollment, not to mention how many people could possibly get hurt. And even if we do bring her, I doubt she'll discover the maiden's location for a good amount of time, especially with classes and assignments. Besides," he continued, turning to her, "I'm hoping we can bring her out of their grasp before she goes too far."

"So... it's a gamble." Glynda summarized. "See if we can save her before she goes too far."

"It's a bet." He reiterated, removing his specs. "And quite frankly, it's one with the odds stacked against us."

...

...

Perfect.

All of it was perfect.

Ruby smiled as she gazed upon the night stars from the ledge of a building, admiring their beauty and their clarity. Everything was going proceeding as planned. Ruby became the seeming-hero of the robbery, she was introduced to both a teacher of the academy, and the headmaster himself, and managed to get enrolled into Beacon, just as expected by her. Too be honest, Ruby was baffled that it was a little too easy by this point, but then again, she did have practice with her acting from some people, and Ozpin was none the wiser about her true motives there.

At least from her point-of-view.

It was all going just as followed. She would infiltrate Beacon, gain the trust of some fellow students, find the stupid maiden, and finish what she failed to do in the first place. Every time that maiden came into her mind, it was always followed with the after report.

...

...

 _ ***Flashback, Several Months Earlier***_

Darkness, dread, and Grimm. These were the elements that comprised of Salem's domain, Ruby's home for the last several years. She remembers how unsteady her heart felt, the guilt she felt with that frown on her face. Time and again she kept replaying how she botched everything, failed to complete her task as expected, and knowing how her Grandmother, real or not, was going to take it. She might not have shown it, and maybe she didn't truly feel it for all Ruby knew, but she could tell there was disappointment emanating from her.

Or maybe she's just been around Tyrian too much, possibly that.

Whenever a meeting was being held, they would always be gathered in that one special room, the very place Ruby first met her dear sweet Granny. From order and row, Salem would always be at the top of the large meeting table, followed by Ruby on her right and an empty chair to her left. Like Cinder herself now had, with two of her own personal assistance, Ruby was always accompanied by her shadow, Wolfie, the protective wolf mother always lying behind Ruby to both guard, and protect. As mentioned, the wolf had finally stopped growing, and possibly for good measure given it's massive size. It was nearly the size of a truck if you had one by comparison, barely able to fit entirely into any of the smaller rooms, but being perfectly fine in the large room before them.

A seat from her you would find Cinder, the two assistants, Emerald and Mercury, the ones Ruby considered her new siblings, either by the wall behind her or just outside the room as they waited. It wasn't a surprising development, seeing how Cinder was her mother, to find her closer to Salem too. And if it was a seeming matter of favoritism, that also wasn't surprising. After all, Cinder was the one who brought the Silver-eyed girl to Salem from the very beginning, so if there was any way of showing her gratitude, being second closest to her, a matter only due to wanting to be next to her angel than the other side of her, was a given.

And from there, they were the remnants of Ruby's family as followed; Arthur Watts, the teacher Ruby always looked to for guidance and her future studying. Many things she found herself more interested in than others, but such was the way of any school. It took a while to get used to his critiques though. Whether it was mannerisms, the studies he pushed her through, etiquette, or even as simple as eating, he would always take joy in pointing out each and every one of her flaws. He was wise enough to keep them to himself in the presence of Salem though, knowing of the inexplainable fondness she had over the child.

Across from him there would be Hazel, the "bigger uncle", as Ruby first used to refer to him as, often now going by the nickname she later gave him "Hazelnut". She found it cute herself, and it didn't bother him that much as long as she didn't do it out of annoyance. He was often the one Ruby found herself training with when it came to physical workouts, and they were exhausting! But it did at least give someone to play catch with from time to time aside from the beowolves and Wolfie, and he might've been the only person physically matched by Neo despite her shorter size, only being shorter by half a head at this point in time to Ruby.

Speaking of who, that comprised of one of the last two people in the meeting hall. Always at the end of the table, it was Neo on the right of Salem, and Tyrian to the left. This was due for a couple of reasons, the main and important ones being more personal. As long as it was to guard her, Salem didn't mind if Neo stood at Ruby's side, but she always insisted being across from Tyrian. It wasn't out of interest, that was the farthest thing it was from. It was just a better way for her to keep an eye on the one who was attacking the sister when they first met.

But that was probably the last thing on Tyrian's mind. Ever since Ruby came to their domain for the following span of time, he's been doing anything and everything in his power to avoid coming towards Ruby. Not out of disrespect, and if he was ordered something by Salem or Ruby herself, he would do anything necessary near her. And to be honest, Ruby herself found it a little funny. He did still scare her for the first year or two since arriving here, but she's gotten used to him. But ever since their first meeting, Salem announcing her dire disappointment of Tyrian's treatment of the one she labeled "granddaughter", he's been nothing but an emotional wreck whenever Ruby was her. He absolutely refused to do anything else in his power to further Salem's disappointment in him, that one simple case hanging over his life ever since.

This was how the meeting assembly always went, whenever it required all their presence.

"Thank you for meeting." Salem started. "I trust you have a report to make, regarding Fall Maiden?" She questioned, looking to Cinder.

"We were-"

"I failed." Ruby sniffled with her head lowered. "It's all my fault." Cinder was already mentally cursing to herself, wishing Ruby had let her do the explaining as instructed. It only became more distressing as Salem's curiosity was piqued.

"You, failed?" She repeated, leaning over slightly. "Explain, please."

This was one of the few things that always annoyed Arthur. Only when she was addressing Ruby, or her mother since she brought her in, she was always softer towards her. It's not like she didn't soften to anything since her arrival either. She still spoke with an authoritative tone at times, whenever necessary, and you wouldn't know it unless you knew her from personal experience. But to those that did, she had a softer presence, something she cursed but tolerated having, after spending so much time with Ruby.

Everyone was smart enough not to point it out to her.

"Salem, I... I'm sorry..." Just from here, she could already see a single tear rolling down Ruby's left cheek. With nothing more than a small smile and her finger, she wiped it from the child's cheek. "I was supposed to... I was supposed to take a shot with my weapon while Emmy kept her distracted, but I... I froze... I tried everything to move, but I just... I just couldn't..."

"You couldn't take the shot." Watts stated with a grin. He was smart enough not to push his luck further, not when Salem treasured Ruby so much, but he knew exactly how far he could take it. "And because of your failure, the maiden got away and everything failed. Well done."

"Watts." It only took a name from Salem to make him stop. "Exactly how is the failure her fault when she wasn't supposed to partake in the mission to begin with?" She questioned, catching Watts off guard. That was the one key detail he wasn't aware of.

"E-Excuse me?" He stuttered.

"Salem tasked the three of us of handle the mission ourselves." Cinder revealed, not hesitating to hold back on anything that would annoy Watts. Especially if he messed with her daughter. "Ruby wasn't supposed to even follow along. We only took her after she kept insisting she could help."

"I wanted to prove I could handle it... handle taking a life but..." Ruby continued to mope.

"You shouldn't put yourself down so much." Hazel commented, trying to encourage her a little. He was always the easier of the three men to warm up to since Ruby's arrival, always having the most gentle of personalities. "You're still verily young to be taking anyone's life. I mean you're... how old again?"

"About Fifteen, give or take a few months." She replied, growing a small smile from any form of support.

"That's exactly my point. Being ready to take a life and actually doing it are on completely different ends of each other. You did your best and you didn't interfere when you watched the others try to do it."

That was one piece she could happily agree with. Taking someone's life was... new to her. Even when she had a perfect clear shot, even when the maiden was in her line of sight, she just froze. She couldn't pull that stupid trigger, nor kill that damnable evil maiden when she needed to most. At the very least, she didn't interfere in the least when she watched everyone else trying to claim her life. It was necessary, they had to put a stop to her no matter what. She just wished she could've pulled it before the maiden discovered the trap.

"And," Salem proudly continued, "you still jumped in when the time was necessary, didn't you?"

"Mh hm, when that hunter showed up out of nowhere." She remembered. "I saved mom just in time even though he took off with the maiden." She could almost perfectly recall the clash of their scythes when they met. Within seconds before he could strike her mother, her emotions, and most importantly her semblance, kicked right in, dashing in time to save her mom milliseconds away from her death. "He was nothing more than a coward too, he looked absolutely horrified when he saw me."

She was the only one unaware of the reasoning behind this matter. They weren't her real family, but they were the closest thing she had to a real family all the same. So it was only natural she would never realize when she came across anyone related or nearly-related to her.

"You took initiative, and even when you failed, you still assisted in every way you could and saved your mother. I'm very proud of you." Salem nodded, earning a satisfying smile from her Ruby.

"Thanks Gran..." Ruby replied quietly, covering her face slightly with her hood. It took forever to stop calling her "Grandma salem" or "Granny Salem", at least when it came to these private meetings, but she couldn't help simply calling her "Gran" from time to time, even in public.

Another thing Salem didn't mind from her.

"Y-Yeah yeah, good work. Great work. You're both great." Tyrian stuttered, only staring blankly at the table. Neo just rolled her eyes as she shook her head. Any time he could do or say something that would support Ruby, he always went for it in the hopes of gaining the grand approval of his beloved goddess.

"So you tell me, Watts, how is the mission a failure when she never had one?" Salem countered. He didn't like talking back to Salem, unable to predict her reactions when Ruby was involved, but he couldn't back down from a challenge either.

"The progress of the mission matters little if the results are negligible." He pointed out. "The maiden is still alive, and whether it was her fault or Cinder's fault for bringing her, a failure is still a failure."

"He is still right about that." Ruby agreed, to his surprise since he was content with insulting her. "If the maiden's been taken away, we need to figure out where she's been."

"We're already on top of that, hun." Cinder informed. "If that hunter's who I think it is, he'll take her to someone named Ozpin."

"Ozpin, hmm?" Salem rubbed her chin. "That could present a problem."

"We could launch an assault on the academy to find her?" Hazel suggested.

"Without any plan or idea of where the maiden is? That's very unlikely." Watts pointed out. "Even if you could figure out where the maiden was out of the blue, you'd be swarmed by hunters and huntresses from all over, not to mention the security forces that patrol there."

"So basically we need to get someone on the inside and infiltrate it." Cinder stated. It seemed like a simple course of action. They needed someone on the inside, several of them at that, and they needed to get inside without any complications or suspicion. Out of the group, Cinder only found it natural to-

"I'll do it!" Ruby volunteered, standing from her seat.

"What- Ruby, no!" Cinder yelled, standing to look her in the eye. "That's way too dangerous!"

"Well aren't you being a good mom?" Watts teased.

" **Shut up!** " They both yelled back at once.

"Mom, it's fine, I can do this!" She assured. "I've been studying and fighting since I came here, I'll be fine!"

"Absolutely not young lady!" Cinder yelled back. "You have no idea what those people are like, especially others like Ozpin!"

"Cinder," Salem spoke catching their attention, "while I understand your worries, it might be our best course of action. Anything less would be a possible suicide run."

"I know that, but-"

"Mom, please." Ruby begged. She could never resist that look in her eye when she did. "Let me do this. It'll make up for the last mission, and I can kill the maiden too!"

"Ruby, I-"

"Please mom, at least let me try!" She pleaded, holding Cinder's hand.

The one weapon in Ruby's arsenal that would always make Cinder surrender. It's not that she couldn't trust her daughter with the task at hand, it's that she never trusted anyone else related to hunters and huntresses. It was like sending a chick to go into the lion's den, or wolf's den in Ruby's case. She shifted her eyes briefly to the side, noticing Salem nod her head to her. It was less of an agreement, and more of an order to tell her to, but she wouldn't have forced it if Ruby's own safety was the true priority.

With a familiar moan, and a gentle smile, she nodded in return, much to Ruby's delight.

"Alright, you can handle this." She replied.

"Yes! Thanks mom!" She yelped, throwing her arms around her and squeezing her tightly. Salem found it hard to resist the urge to smile at this scene, having grown used to it during the course of Ruby's stay in her domain. It was comforting, to say the least. Pleasantly so.

"But I want by-the-week updates from you. You understand?" She requested. "And if anyone starts getting the least bit suspicious of you, you have to come home immediately, got it?"

"Yeah yeah, sure, whatever!" Ruby was too excited to pay attention to even half the details she mentioned, something Cinder knew she'd have to repeat later on.

"Ugh, alright alright, calm down." She pushed her daughter gently with a smile.

"We still need to discuss some matter of entry, though." Watts added. "We can't entirely just stroll in there expecting them to just enroll us with open arms. Ruby doesn't have any legal education documents."

"And if she did, it would be weird for a student to singlehandedly transfer to the academy after these events." Salem noted. "Even if Ruby finds the maiden too, she still might not be able to kill her when the time comes. If we're going to pull this off, we should move into two teams. Ruby should head on over early to secure the Maiden's location, then we can send somebody else after when the Vytal Tournament draws near." The statement made Ruby blink with confusion.

"The Vyt-whatzit?" She wondered.

"Nothing you need to worry about by then." Salem replied with a smile. "Just find the maiden's location for the time being. If you can kill her yourself, then great, but don't fret if you can't bring yourself to at the time. I'll be counting on you to just find her for now."

"Yeah... ok!" Ruby cheered with excitement, squeezing her fist. "I'm gonna make everyone proud! I promise!"

...

...

"And I don't plan on breaking that promise." Even now, the day after her official enrollment, Ruby couldn't stop thinking of that scene as she flew within the massive airship.

The test went off without a single issue. It was a pleasant score, at least over 80%, which wasn't that bad for anyone who apparently had little-to-no education beforehand. She was even fortunate enough to get the test results early, just hours afterwards, being more than thrilled to be accepted and flown to the academy, one she didn't realize till now was in the sky of all things, where she could complete her mission! This was going to be the greatest moment of her life, hands down!

"Ok, ok, ok, calm down Ruby, calm down." She muttered to herself as she paced near a window. "Find the maiden, find the maiden, find the maiden, find the- whooooooa!"

It was still a long while away, but there it stood. Beacon Academy, the heart of Vale itself. Here Hunters and Huntresses would gather to better themselves and their skills, all for the sake of becoming the heroes they were destined to be! Honestly, it was a bit of a disappointment this was nothing more than a formality for Ruby. She was only here just for the sake of completing her mission. Once that was taken care of, she was going to take a straight shot home, whether that involved riding a Grimm to Grandma's house or otherwise.

"No waaay... is that the academy?!" Ruby heard a voice to her right. It was then she noticed the tall blonde with the short-shorts. "That place looks awesome!"

"I know, right?" Ruby replied in agreement, earning a grin from the older girl.

"I'm Yang, nice hood." She greeted.

"Heh, I'm Ruby." The fifteen-year-old replied, shaking her hand. "Nice to meet you!"

"Nice to meet you t-... wait, Ruby?" Yang looked over the girl curiously. "Haven't we...?"

"Haven't we what?" Ruby could just stare, completely dumbfounded. She had no idea this was the same girl she met for five minutes nearly a decade ago.

"It's just... eh, never mind." Yang said, shaking her head. Something about the girl was really familiar to her. The only problem was she could see the familiarity in her name, and the familiarity in her outfit. But any time she put the two together, she drew a blank. "Say, I don't think I remember seeing you before. What school did you go to?"

"Huh? Oh, umm..." Even if it was fake, Ruby still felt a bit embarrassed about her enrollment, and characteristics that matched. "A-Actually, I was kinda enrolled from a placement exam yesterday."

"So what?" Yang responded with a shrug. "A lot of the students had to take a placement exam, even me...although... I didn't think you could take them a literal day before you went to the academy. Come to think of it, you look pretty young too."

"Well, you couldn't... there was just some... exceptions for me apparently..." She mumbled nervously. The fact of the matter only caused more confusion for the young blonde.

"Exceptions? What do you mean?" Before either of them could continue, one of the surrounding projections lit up with a news report.

"The robbery was led by nefarious criminal Roman Torchwick." The report continued, displaying a police image of the criminal from when he was once captured. Ruby had to admit, it was rather humorous recalling the day he was arrested, mostly finding the mugshot he received hilarious with the scratched chin and the bruised face. And all he could do was smile as his picture was taken. "Reports claimed that a young girl attempted to apprehended the suspect in the midst of the robbery, but the criminal managed to get away. If anyone has any information on his whereabouts, please contact the Vale police department. Back to you, Lisa."

"Thank you, Cyril." The reporter replied as she appeared on screen. "In other new, this Saturday's Faunus Civil Right's," the words immediately rang to Ruby's ears, "protest turned dark when members of the White Fang disrupted the ceremony. The once peaceful organization has now disrupted..." Before the report could continue the screen beeped as it turned off.

"Oooh, come on!" Ruby whined to herself. She was hoping out of anything she might see a picture of Blake, or a possible mention of her.

"A young girl...!" Yang's eyes flashed as she realized the immediate connection, quickly looking over to Ruby once more. "Hey wait a minute!"

"Oh nooooo..." Ruby moaned, pulling down her hood a little. She didn't mind meeting the occasional person here or there, but she didn't want anyone announcing her name to the world or something. That would just make this infiltration even harder! She was also cursing her luck at the person she just met. She could've been any other kind of blond but no, she had to be one of those smart tough-looking blondes, not one of those bimbo-headed ones like she was hoping.

"I knew it!"

*whack*

"Ow!" Ruby yelped, rubbing her left shoulder. She wasn't being assaulted by the cheerful teen, but that punch would've told her otherwise. If that was just her holding back, she never wanted to get into a fist fight with this chick.

"You are the same girl, aren't you?" Yang assumed with a grin.

"Please, not so loooud!" Ruby shushed frantically waving her hands back and forth. Maybe this chick was one of those bimbo-brained blondes after all.

"Duuude, you don't have to be so shy! What you did was awesome!" She complimented cracking her knuckles. "They say you practically scorched an entire street just from trying to stop them! I wish I could've been there!"

"Well it wasn't that awesome when I got arrested for the property damage..." She mumbled.

As Yang continued to ramble on, taking the occasional moment to look outside at the beautiful scenery, Ruby suddenly felt the too-familiar feeling of a large wolf's snout pressing against her back. It wasn't the entirety of Wolfie ascending from the ground, it was the head of Wolfie slowly popping out from the inside of Ruby's cape. Something that Cinder and Salem slowly came to discover, upon Ruby receiving her beloved gift from her mother, is that Wolfie pops out of her shadows. That's nothing too surprising, right? Well, thanks to the cloak, that took things up a notch. Apparently now that Ruby has an entire cloth surrounding her most of the time, the Wolf's managed to pop out from portions of her cloak covered by shadow. Basically, she can now summon Wolfie literally from the inside of her cloak if she wills it hard enough.

Unfortunately, that also presented a new set of problems. When Wolfie was only capable of popping out of the grounds of Ruby's shadow, it was easier to contain and keep her under control. The wolf only responded to Ruby's emotions, or whenever it felt that Ruby was threatened or under attack. But now, since she's also somewhat became part of her cloak, not only does she feel closer to Ruby, metaphorically and literally speaking, any time Ruby suffered an injury, a small amount of that was transferred to Wolfie too. Granted, it was barely even an injury if Wolfie felt it, feeling more like someone applying simple pressure to wherever it was hit from, like Ruby's shoulders. But now that it was closer in nearly every way to Ruby, it had a heightened sense of Ruby's being, and only came to care more for her emotions and well-being.

That's why it worried Ruby to no end seeing her suddenly stick it's head out from the inside of Ruby's cloak.

"Grrrrrrr!" She growled.

"Wolfie, no!" Ruby panicked, quickly pushing the wolf back in. At least it was easy telling her to get back inside. Now if only she could keep it from coming out in the first place, they'd be making progress.

"Excuse me?" Yang wondered, hearing the mumbling.

"W-What? Oh, noooo, don't mind me! Heheheh..." Ruby chuckled nervously, concealing herself in her cloak once more. "I was just uhh... telling my stomach to stop growling! Heh, grrrr wolfie, not now, we'll eat later! Heh heh heh..." Ruby only had one thought at that point.

 _Abandon ship!_

"Oooookaaaaay...?" Ruby did seem a little weird to Yang, but she supposed it wasn't too surprising. If she's as young as the reports say, she's a fifteen-year-old girl attending Beacon! That alone can already make a lot of people nervous beyond compare.

Before their conversation could continue, they were both interrupted as the projection came on once more, this time displaying Glynda Goodwitch herself.

"Hello, and welcome to Beacon." She greeted.

"Who's that?" Yang asked.

"My name is Glynda Goodwitch."

"Oh."

"You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy. Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace,-"

"Yeah right..." Ruby silently scoffed.

"-and as future Huntsman and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now, it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge, and the training to protect our world." With that, the projector turned off once more, clearing the view of the outside window.

"Oh wow..." Yang oohed at the sight, gesturing Ruby to come on over. She chuckled silently to herself as she did, wasting no time to see the incredible academy from up close. "Look! There's signal!" The moment of joy slowly dwindled as she noticed Ruby's sorrow look.

It would be a lie to say Ruby wanted to do what she did. This did seem like a nice place despite what she's heard. Sure, there were tons of bad people in these streets, and she was sure there were multiple threats out in the world. But for the simple people unlike her, they had no idea what was coming, what she had to do. They were nothing more than vermin who clung to one possession in their lives, whether it be a building or an item. That's one of the many lessons her grandmother taught her, and one she took to heart.

She still knew it was going to be hard tear this place down one day.

"No place like home, huh?" Ruby muttered, nearly jumping as Yang through an arm over her shoulder, admiring the view outside.

"Beacon's our home now." Truer words had never been spoken. Ruby had to agree.

"Urgh...bloorgh..." Another student could be heard moaning in disgust. Looking over to the side, both girls noticed another tall boy, a little taller than Ruby, groaning in misery as he held his stomach and groggily walked passed them.

"Eh, I guess traveling's not for everyone." She commented. "It was a nice moment while it lasted. I wonder who we're going to meet?"

"I just hope they're better than vomit boy." Ruby joked. The brief smile on Ruby's face quickly dropped as she noticed a smell coming from Yang's feet. "Oh, Yang, gross, you have puke on your shoes!"

"What?! Oh, gross, gross, gross, gross, gross-" She panicked chasing around the young girl in disgust.

"Ahhh! Ewww! Get away from me! Get away! Get away! Get away! Get away!"

This, is where our story truly begins.

 ** _~They see you as small and helpless; ~_**

 ** _~They see you as just a child~_**

 ** _~Surprise when they found that a warrior will soon run wild~_**

 ** _~Prepare for your greatest moments;~_**

 ** _~Prepare for your finest hour~_**

 ** _~The dream that you've always dreamed is suddenly about to ~_**

 ** _~flower~_**

 ** _~We are lightning~_**

 ** _~Straying from the thunder~_**

 ** _~Miracles of ancient wonder~_**

 ** _~This will be the day we've waited for~_**

 ** _~This will be the day we open up the door~_**

 ** _~I don't wanna hear your absolution;~_**

 ** _~Hope you're ready for a revolution~_**

 ** _~Welcome to a world of new solutions~_**

 ** _~Welcome to a world of bloody evolution~_**

 ** _~In time, your heart will open minds~_**

 ** _~A story will be told~_**

 ** _~And victory is in a simple soul~_**

...

...

...

 ** _A/N: Another fun chapter, although annoyingly enough that took longer than I had hoped given the amount of time I had X/ I think i'm a bit drained from the 20k thing i wrote tuesday, so i guess it's a given XP._**

 ** _MASSIVE SHOUTOUT TO blueanimelover123 FOR BEING MY NEW PROOF READER! As well as an EVIL MAD GENIUS T_T! My initial plan was to make him my proof-reader, have him correct everything, then state the contract I didn't give him that I forged his name on stated he will take any and all blame for missing any corrections. The only problem is, HES A SHE X*(! I can't blame a girl, I'll be a jerk then!_**

 ** _CURSE YOUUUUUUU!_**

 ** _Anyway, let me know what you guys think ^^ Apologies again to any grammar or wording errors, this computer sucks X/ thankfully I don't use it constantly..._**

 ** _Also let me know if you guys want me to add scenes to the intro. I plan on playing the intro at every episode such as the show, but i wanna know if you guys would like me to add the scenes to those things since i already got those planned out too. Or even better, let me know if you guys wanna add them ^^! Maybe i'll make it a bit of a contest, add the best intro from the winner for the first volume, you know ^^?_**

 ** _Anyway, it should be expected but some chapters are going to be shorter than others, others longer as such. Don't feel too bad if one chapter comes to like this size, nearly 10k words, and the next one is only like 5-6k._**

 ** _As always, let me know what you think, and thank you for your continued support ^^!_**


	24. Vol 1 Episode 2 & 3: Sisterly Reunion

**_A/N: 9.2k pre-AN, probably gonna add episode 3 to this seeing how it's short. Hope people are enjoying the show so far and the story going along with it ^^ I might ask for suggestions here and there from time to time related to certain parts I'm questioning, so stay tuned if you have any ideas :P!_**

 ** _And again, let me know if you guys would like for me to write some "scenes" to go along with the intro of each episode to give a visual idea of what this version of the intro looks like ^^. I'll also take request of anyone wanting to add the scenes themselves for each line (send me messages and such if you'd like to add the scene :P)_**

 ** _PS: Would also like to thank sani2341 for pointing out a flaw with the dual-bladed scythe. While the idea of using one isn't impossible, it wouldn't work as well in RWBY. The multi-compaction all the weapons have (the things that transform them from like a gun to a sword and such) would end up cutting ruby endlessly regardless of which order I try to present it in._**

 ** _As such, I'll be switching it back to her previous single-bladed weapon, granted with a dust-bladed version of her scythe compared to her real one. Am I worried? No, because come on, it's a freaking flaming scythe! That's already awesome ^^! But would like to point out if you see continuity errors or I forgot to change up something in here like it mentions her using a dual-bladed scythe or something I apologize. I'm pretty sure I got it mostly fixed though..._**

 ** _Either way, please enjoy this double-episode episode :P!_**

 ** _..._**

 ** _..._**

 ** _..._**

 ** _~This will be the day we've waited for~_**

 ** _~This will be the day we open up the door~_**

 ** _~I don't wanna hear your absolution;~_**

 ** _~Hope you're ready for a revolution~_**

 ** _~Welcome to a world of new solutions~_**

 ** _~Welcome to a world of bloody evolution~_**

 ** _~In time, your heart will open minds~_**

 ** _~A story will be told~_**

 ** _~And victory is in a simple soul~_**

One by one the ships docked at the unloading zone of the great academy, Ruby's being amongst the first! Many of the students were overexcited about this prestigious journey they were about to undertake, all requiring that first step right out the door! Many were thrilled! Many were spirited! Many were overjoyed!

"Mmh...bleeegh!"

...And that one same guy who lost part of his lunch earlier on Yang's shoes could only run outside to the nearest trash bin. But still, things were looking up.

"Bleeeeegghhhhh!" Just don't look in his direction, or you'll be thinking otherwise.

With the many students, Ruby and Yang walked out together, admiring the great view of the illustrious academy. It was one thing to see it on TV. It was one thing to see it through the window. It was one thing to walk upon it's campus. And it was going to be a great thing to finally walk within the school itself!

Nothing to be said to express the excitement and joy the two felt just from looking at these sacred grounds! Before them was a grand, majestic school in the shape of a fountain, a display of it's architecture the likes of which have never been seen before. There were towers amongst towers, pillars amongst pillars, and the grand building dead in it's center, the very one where the headmaster of this prestigious academy awaited them.

"The view from Vale's got nothing on this." Yang commented with a grin.

"Ooh! Ooh! Yang!" Ruby's eyes sparkled like diamonds. The scenery itself was gorgeous for sure, but there was only one thing in particular she had any interest in, and they were walking right passed her one before the other. "That kid's got a collapsable staff! Ooooo!h! And she's got a fire sword~!" She squeaked as she slowly fluttered away.

"Easy there, Ruby." Yang chuckled, pulling the smaller girl back by her why hood.

"Ow, ow ow..." Ruby yelped a bit, snapping out of her momentary state of chibiness.

"Take it easy, they're just weapons."

"Wah?! Just weapons?!" Ruby grumbled to herself squeezing her hood down tightly. "Oh all the...! Urgh! They are not just weapons!" Ruby stated looking back. "They're an extension of ourselves! Each one of them has a deeper meaning, they're part of who we are! I mean take yours for example," she said, gesturing to her gauntlets, "what do they say about you?"

"What? These?" Yang grinned, setting the guns up with a click.

"Yes!" Ruby looked over the gauntlets with interest. "What are they called?"

"Ember and Celica. I consider them sisters."

"Yes, exactly! And why did you make them as such?" Ruby's string of curiosity eventually faded at the sight of a confused Yang.

"Umm... to punch the crap out of bad guys, I guess?" Her reply was simple, but disappointing to the hooded girl. All Yang could do was smile as she gave a few practice jabs before her. "I kinda wanted to be like my dad, you know? Whenever he fought, he was always getting down and dirty, fighting mano-a-mano!"

"Oh... well there you go." Ruby happily nodded. "It says a lot about you and your family, you like feeling close to them."

"You really take this weapon stuff seriously, don't ya?" Yang commented. "What about you? What's your weapon?"

"Oh! You wanna see it?" Ruby was already to excited to take no for an answer, quickly digging behind her back out of reflex.

In a swift motion, the young teen presented her weapon before the blond girl, twirling about what at first seemed like a basic red pole with a single attachment piece at the end of it. When Ruby finally finished showing off the twirls, taking her combat stance, Yang watched as the one-foot wide blade elevated from the base of the side, protruding from the large polearm.

Both sides a unique look to themselves that made it easy to differentiate.

The top of the blade seemed a bit simplistic for it's details, appearing as a plain scythe blade with nothing more than above cutting power compared to the world's deadliest and sharpest of blades. However, what gave it it's uniqueness was the wide igniter at the base of the polearm, placed at end of the blade. Yang wouldn't know it at this point, but it gave it the ability to ignite the blade in a blaze of glorious fire, powered by the inlined red Dust that trailed from the heel of the blade all the way to the tip.

And within the polearm itself, it was engineered and designed to fire large caliber bullets, the likes of which from a sniper rifle, making the grip crucial to maintain aiming and kickback. Much like the igniter for the blade itself, the bullet were capable of firing customizable bullets depending on the various forms of dust used for them, as well as bolts of pure fire should Ruby ever need it. However, the latter method, while effective, did drain a large portion of the dust the weapon required, making it necessary to use only when the situation truly called for it.

Alone the blade would be a weapon of pure destruction. In the right hands though, it was a force to be reckoned with.

"Whoa, you really went all out with the weapon thing, didn't ya?" Yang examined it surprised. The weapon as a whole must've been at least a foot or two taller than Ruby herself. Thankfully the Storage mode allowed it to compact into a much smaller size Ruby could carry around her belt, not that it made it weigh any less.

"Of course I did, it's a symbol of who I am." Ruby smiled to herself, admiring her weapon once again. "It's a part of me, and my mothers."

"Well, I think it's great if you care about your family too..." Yang suddenly blinked as she recalled what the girl just said. "Wait... did you just say... You have TWO moms?" Yang asked.

"What? Noooo, don't be silly." Ruby went on before Yang could let out a breath of relief. "I have three moms!"

"Say what?" Ruby didn't even seem to notice the completely red-faced blush Yang was making.

"Well technically I guess one's more like half-a-mom since I only spent a few years with her compared to my second mom, but-" Ruby commented tapping her chin.

"Whoa, hey never mind!" Yang gave a cheeky nervous smile as she waved her hands to stop her. "I think it's great if you have more than one mom, really! Whatever makes them happy, I totally support it." Ruby had absolutely no idea what Yang was getting at with this. Then again, when you spend less than one year's worth of days outside of your house by this point, chances are nobody would know many social or life-related details to it.

Like what it looks like when you have two moms.

"Anyway," Ruby continued, "so yeah. I consider my family close to me, and everything I have is the best way to express it." While it didn't make the situation feel any less awkward, Yang did have to admit it was a little nice hearing about how much someone cared for their family.

"I still think it's sweet."

"The flames of the scythe represent my closest mom, and the cloak that protects me never lets me forget the warm embrace of my first mother-" she said as she pulled open her cloak a little, "- one I'll never get to meet no matter how much I miss her.

It was tragic reality for Ruby's case. No matter how much she wished she could meet her, even just once, she was never going to meet the first of several mothers she ever had. She was never going to experience her warm touch, never hear the sweet sound of her voice, or even know the details related to her name. All she had left to remember her by was the white-hooded cloak surrounding herself, being the only means of feeling close to her. It was one of her greatest sadnesses, and treasure.

"And from my third mother I-" Ruby cut herself off before she continued.

It was important that she kept Wolfie's existence a secret. If it was ever exposed, Ruby would need to go into detail about how the wolf was nothing more than a part of her semblance, a semblance where a living, breathing, shadow was sworn to protect her.

Easy, right?

Well that also became part of the problem considering she still had her real semblance to deal with. When the situation called for it and she needed a quick burst of speed, one Wolfie would never be able to accomplish on the spot, she would need to activate her semblance to jump in and save the day. But if her real semblance was ever exposed, then the illusion would be cast off, and the situation would prove more critical with people questioning her dual-semblances.

And such a matter would only expose her to her true purpose more.

"As long as I have these things... I'll never feel alone again, no matter where I am." Ruby finished smiling, finally looking back to where Yang was standing. "So, you ready to go?"

Instead of seeing a tall blonde haired girl, she was only met with the faint outline of where Yang once stood. Looking back and forth from her, her jaw only dropped as she saw Yang running away from her with several of her friends surrounding her.

"I'll cya later Ruby, it was great meeting you! Find ya later at your dorms!" Yang waved goodbye, her voice being lost in the laughter and chatter of her surrounding running friends.

"Annnnnnd I'm alone again... huh... What's a dorm?" Ruby shook her head with a sigh.

She had to admit, this was going to be one of the greatest challenges she ever had in her life. There were the details of finding the maiden Amber, she had to figure out how to infiltrate this school without arousing suspicion, and most importantly, what it meant to be living on her own for the next several years. It was only now that it dawned on her that this was the first time being all on her own. She was going to have to be extremely careful from this point onward. She couldn't look weird, act weird, she was going to need to socialize to keep up appearance, and so much more.

At least she had Wolfie. She was literally always right beside her, whether within the cloak or on the ground beneath her. Wolfie was the one thing that kept her from fearing everything around her when she moved in with Salem, when her mom thought it would be best stay there for her remaining days, excluding missions. And in some cases it was true. She loved her grandmother very much, real or not, and she had plenty of Grimm to play with. Not to mention she even got to stay with her big sis Neo, who always watched out for her wherever she went. But if there was ever a time she was busy, whether doing work around Salem's domain or off on a mission with Cinder or Roman, the latter of whom they never wanted to inform about this place for some reason, Wolfie would still always be the one protective wolf at her side, always keeping her company and always keeping her safe just like a Den Mother Wolf.

So, with nothing else to do, Ruby cleared her head and raised her hood over, focusing on her mission. Right before her was her biggest mission ever, and there was only one way to truly start it! With the first foot forward-

 _*squeak*_

"Wah-Ahhh!" Ruby suddenly yelped as her foot snagged on a passing wheel, tripping over and collapsing on several white suitcases that came toppling down with her. Not even before her foot step and she was already tripping over things.

Her chances weren't looking good.

"What are you doing!?" A voice yelled angrily.

"Ugh...huh? Sorry..." Ruby rubbed her head as she looked back.

"Sorry?" The white-clad girl grumbled. "Do you have any idea of the damage you could've caused?" Much like with Yang, there was a strange sense of de sha sha when Ruby saw the angry speaker. That white elegant dress, that long bang of snow white hair, her professional mannerism. There was something familiar about this girl yet she couldn't even begin to tell what.

"Uhh..." Ruby tried her best to apologize, handing over one of the many white crates.

"Gimme that!" She snapped quickly swiping the contents from the other. "This is Dust mined and purified from the Schnee Quarry."

"Uhh..."

"What are you, brain dead?" Ok, so maybe she wasn't much for social matters but she at least had the knowledge to know when someone was trying to insult her.

"Well at least I don't look like a kidnapper." She retorted.

"What?" That was definitely one of the worst comebacks she's ever heard. "What is that supposed to..." The girl trailed off as she saw the other's face. There wasn't really anything about her face that she could recognize, but something about what she just said definitely brought up a sense of familiarity. "What did you... Never mind!" She shook her head clear of thoughts, quickly pulling out one of the many red vials of Dust to examine. "This is Dust! Fire, Water, Lightning, Energy!" She explained shaking the vial before her.

"Uhhh..." Was it an allergy? Just coincidence? She couldn't tell why but something about all the red pollen-looking dust that sprayed before here was making her nose twitch and her head feel light.

"Are you even listening to me? Is any of this sinking in? What do you have to say for yourself!?"

There was only one thing that came to mind.

"Uhhhaaaaaahhhhh-CHOOOOO!"

 _*BOOM*_

 _*sizzle*_

In one large burst of energy, Ruby got a firsthand look at the true power of the treasured Dust! From her sneeze, a powerful burst of flame erupted before her, sparks of lightning and electricity sizzling amongst the glorious red cloud in a dramatic display of might! The force of it alone was enough to blow her hood back again, Ruby just struggling keep it in place, the majority of her cape being blown along with it. It was truly a display of ultimate power!... Unfortunately, that ended up enveloping the entirety of the other girl's body.

During said explosion, neither of them noticed as one of the red vials, possibly the very one the girl was holding at the time, was blasted away from the scene. The vials themselves must've been pretty durable since it didn't even crack, much less shatter, as it collided with the pavement, rolling until it brushed against someone's foot. The same girl just picked up the foreign object, not paying the least bit of attention to it as she continued reading her book. The only thing that did make her turn away from it was the constant ramblings of angry girl several yards away. She no idea what she was yelling about, but, aside from just hating the sight of a Schnee in general, she hated seeing her picking on someone else who could only poke their fingers with shame.

"Unbelievable!" The girl continued to scream, Ruby only replying with a small guilty frown. "This is exactly the kind of thing of thing I was talking about!"

"I'm really, really sorry!" She tried to apologize.

"Ugh, you complete dolt! What are you even doing here? Aren't you a little young to be attending Beacon?"

"Well...I..."

"Grrrrrrr!" Ruby's pupil's shrank as she heard Wolfie growling from inside the cape again. It was worse than last time, being loud enough for the other girl to hear, which was probably to be expected. Unlike before when Yang simply punched her cheeringly in the shoulder, Ruby was caught at the edge of an explosion followed by someone yelling angrily at her.

"Did you just growl at me?"

"Shutupshutupshutup!" Ruby yelped, quickly patting the back of her cape to keep Wolfie in.

"Did you just tell me to shut up!?" What nerve! What right did Ruby have to tell her to shut up when she's the one, she thought was, growling at her!

"Wha-? No! Not you! Just uhhh... My stomach!" It was the same lie as before, but at least with a different girl. "Hahaha, shut up tummy! Hehehe...ehhhh..."

"This isn't your ordinary combat school you know." The white-headed girl continued. "It's not just sparring and practice you know. We're here to fight monsters! So watch where you're going!" She scoffed, turning her head away.

"I said I was sorry, princess!" Ruby mumbled with annoyance.

"It's heiress, actually." A voice suddenly spoke. "Weiss Schnee, heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world." Ruby looked at her from head to toe. There was something extremely familiar about her, more than the last two people put together! But what?

"Finally, some recognition!" Weiss stated with pride.

"The same company," the other girl continued, "infamous for it's controversial labor forces and questionable business partners."

"What- How are-!"

"Hehehe.." It might've been rude, but Ruby actually enjoyed seeing the mean girl getting talked down to.

"The nerve of... Ugh!" Weiss groaned, quickly swiping away the vial from the other's hand before stomping away. She didn't seem the least bit concerned for the cases she brought along with her, preferring to let the help do the work.

"What's her problem?" Ruby asked, looking to the other girl.

"She's just stubborn. A lot of the Schnees are." She commented, preparing to walk away with her book.

"Oh hey it's The Man With Two Souls story." Ruby pointed out. The other girl was actually caught off guard and mild interest as she looked back.

"You... know about the story?" She replied curiously.

"Just bits and pieces here and there, really." Ruby swayed a little, hands behind her back. "I used to have a friend named Blake when I was a kid, she used to read it to me a lot. She said it was one of her favorites."

"Used to... wait a minute!" Ruby nearly jumped as the older girl suddenly jumped her, throwing back her hood to gaze at the rest of the caper's face. What she saw was something she never expected. "Ruby!?" Now Ruby was the one caught off guard. She knew there was something very familiar about her, she just couldn't figure out what or why!

"Who... Who are you?" She asked.

"Ruby, it's me! It's..." The older girl paused, observing her surrounding for danger. Most of the students were either gone, or too far away for any of them to notice. With a small smile to herself, she dug through her pockets for a moment before pulling out something Ruby could never forget.

A small golden necklace, with the insignia of the White Fang.

"Hey, where did..." It finally dawned at her. "Blake...?" The returned nod and smile was all she needed, face suddenly beaming with joy. "OHMIGOSH! BLAAAKE!" Ruby shouted with excitement, throwing herself at Blake with a wide hug.

"Whoa, hey easy! Hahaha." Blake chuckled as she caught the girl, nearly falling backwards as she stumbled.

Neither of them could believe it. It was a dream that was too good to be true. In the unlikeliest of places, the lowest of probabilities, the impossibilities of every single gamble in the world, here they were. Two long lost sisters suddenly reunited after nearly seven long grueling years.

"I can't believe it! I can't believe it! I can't-" Ruby's focus shifted over as she looked at Blake's thighs.

"What?" Blake just watched as Ruby slowly began walking behind her, trying to figure out what the younger girl was trying to do.

 _*flip*_

"AH!" Blake yelped in embarrassment, quickly pulling down the back of her skirt that Ruby flipped over. "Ruby! What are you doing?!"

"Where's your tail?" Ruby asked curiously.

"My ta... Oh." Now she got it. It was probably only reason Ruby couldn't figure out her identity, remembering the fond times when Ruby was younger and referred to her as "Kitty girl" and such. With a least half a blush compared to her old one, Blake scratched her cheek a little. "Um... Well I'm mostly just keeping it under my clothes when I can help it."

"Oh." That made sense, catching a brief glance of something bulging from the bottom of Blake's shirt. "Why?"

"Just... reasons..." She found the response weird but decided to shrug it off, quickly throwing herself at Blake again in a warm hug.

"Well still, you're here!" She squealed. "You're here, you're Blake, you..." In an instantaneous motion, her expression flipped a full 180 from an excited smile of glee to an angry glare fueled by rage. "Youuuuu LEFT!" She grumbled pushing her away.

"Hey!" Blake wobbled a bit, being the last response she expected from Ruby.

"Why did you go!? You just left me for seven years, Blake!"

"Ruby..." She frowned.

She didn't want to accept it but Ruby had every right to be angry. It's not everyday someone you considered as close as sisters just drop in one day to announce you'll never see them again. Even if Ruby was still too young to understand it by then, and perhaps now, it still didn't make up for anything she did. She didn't call her, she didn't text her, she didn't have any indication of where she was or where she was going. All she gave Ruby before what they thought was their final farewell as a small necklace to remember her by, a symbol of what her parents used to stand for.

"I just... I didn't want you to get into any trouble just by knowing me." She explained.

"Into trouble? Like how... Say are you still with the White Fa-"

"Shhhhhh!" Blake quickly shushed, covering her mouth. She quickly made sure the coast was clear again before uncovering it. "Like that." She whispered. "Ruby, the White Fang are against the law now. Any and all members are arrested at sight."

"Then could you at least explain why you left?" Ruby pleaded. "I deserve that much and you know it."

"Huff... fine, I can at least tell you that much." She smiled in turn, walking down the pathway with Ruby right at her side. "It's like I said before, the White Fang are illegal. Just being a member of them is enough grounds to get you arrested, even if it's your first day."

"But what did that have to do with me?"

"Well, it wasn't entirely about you, it was your whole fam..." Everything went silent at Blake's realization. "Ruby, are you still with your family?"

"Huh?" She didn't need to think long about what she was getting at, remembering how she fought off her _former uncle_ to get her here to begin with. "O-Oh! No... No, not anymore. We had a bit of a falling out several years ago and... I've been alone ever since..." She lied, frowning as she lowered her head.

"Oh my god..." Blake moaned, embracing Ruby in another hug. "Ruby, I'm so sorry. If I had ever known, I would've come back for you and helped. I'm so sorry!"

"It's fine Blake, really." She insisted smiling back. "I mean look at me. I turned out great, right?" She teased sticking out her tongue.

"Yeah, I guess so." She chuckled, rubbing Ruby's head playfully.

She felt terrible lying to Blake like that, but she absolutely couldn't afford to tell her the truth. If she found out, her family might try to make Ruby get rid of her one way or another, and only if she was lucky. If not, they might've sent someone else to do it for her, Tyrian at the worst. At the same time it did nothing to relief the guilt she felt brewing in her heart. She just told Blake shortly after she left her that she's been on her own for several years. That amount of guilt would make anyone feel horrible, and almost twice as horrible for the person who would have to lie about such a thing!

Still, it did beat the alternative. Even if she told Blake the truth, what then if they didn't get rid of her? Would they try to recruit her into their little family? Ruby would be ecstatic beyond compare, but she wasn't sure if she wanted Blake to follow along with her. She was a sweet and sincere person to her, one she grew up with through half of her life. Would she truly be happening following along with Ruby and the nefarious things that her family did? Just months ago, they tried to kill someone for crying out loud!

What would Blake even think of her at this point?

"By the way, why are you hiding your Faunus parts and all?" Ruby wondered. "I mean if you aren't in the White Fang then you got nothing to worry about, right?"

"Yeah but..."

"Let go of my ears!" A voice cried out, catching their attention.

Up ahead of the pathway, both girls watched as several guys were teasing around another Faunus girl, a bunny one at that. They just laughed and grinned to themselves while the poor bunny-girl was hassling to get her ears back, the iron grips they had making it all but impossible.

"That's why." Nuff said.

"Oh... Hey!" Ruby yelled running over.

"Ruby, wait!" Blake tried to stop, running after her.

"Huh? Oh hey, you want in on this?" The head of this little group grinned, offering Ruby the Bunny's ears.

 _*whap*_

"Ow!" The guy yelped, rubbing his slapped hand as he released the ears. The girl wasted no time quickly running behind Ruby's side, rubbing her sore ears.

"Thank you." She thanked.

"What's your problem kid?" One of the other guys stepped forth, sporting a thin haircut surrounding his mohawk."

"Easy now Russel," the head replied casually, "this little lady just doesn't know what's going on." He grinned walking up to Ruby. There was no way he was gonna take any gripe from someone who couldn't come up to his shoulders. "Listen 'ere, kid, there's a bit of an order on how things run around here. You're either with us, or you're with them." He gestured to the still-sore bunny girl.

"That easy, huh?" Ruby replied, lowering her head.

"Yup! So I think you know what to do here."

"You read my mind."

 _*whack!*_

"Ow! My shin!" He yelped, hopping on one for for a few seconds as he rubbed his kicked shin. "Why you little-!"

"What's going on over here?" Glynda spoke out as she neared the group, looking just as happy as when Ruby first met her.

Not at all.

"Geh, we weren't doing anything teach," he lied grinning, "we were just showing our friend here around school, then this punk came outta nowhere and started hitting us."

"That's not true!" The Fanus girl argued. "You blokes were hassling me and she was the one saving me!"

"Heh, can you listen to her teach? The poor girl's so traumatized she doesn't know what's going on." He chuckled.

"You want an reenactment with my foot this time?" Bake yelled back, not letting anyone pick on her fellow Faunus or close friend.

"Enough, everyone!" Glynda yelled adjusting her glasses. "I won't have any fighting that isn't part of the school exams or festivals. Any more problems out of any of you and you'll find yourself back on the ships straight on out of here. Do I make myself clear?"

"Of course teach, you won't get any trouble out of us." The head promised innocently. "Ain't that right fellas?" He enjoyed the sight of the others grinning with him, nodding here and there in agreement. "Welp, we better head on out of here. Have a good day teach! Heheh." It did irritate Glynda how gullible they thought she was, but seeing how she only caught this conversation from Cardin's yelping, she couldn't say who was responsible without absolute proof.

"And you, Miss Fall," She continued, looking back to Ruby, "I'll be keeping my eye on you from here on out. Are we clear?"

"What?!" Ruby yelled in disbelief. "Why am I the only one singled out? They're the ones who started it!"

"Because you seem to find yourself at the center of any trouble I come across." She noted. "Let's try not to make a habit of that from here on out, and we'll get along just fine." And with this, she carried on strolling away.

"Oh come ooon..." Ruby moaned, drooping her arms in depression. Yup, that seemed like the typical world she learned about. The right people getting blamed, the wrong people getting off scot-free. Just a typical day in your everyday-average corrupted world.

"Umm..." The sound of the Faunus brought Ruby out of it. "Not to sound ungrateful or anything, but you really shouldn't have done that." She frowned. "Cardin's just going to make things harder for you from here on out."

"Would you have preferred if we just ignored it?" Ruby replied crossing her arms. "I can't stand the sight of bullying anyway, no matter who's doing it." Blake smiled at this. That was the Ruby she used to know and love as a kid, always wanting to be a hero like from the cartoons and movies they used to watch, sometimes playing hero and monster with her fake older sister.

"Well... thanks anyway." She said with a small bow. "My names Velvet Scarlatina."

"Nice to meet'cha!" Ruby smiled as the trio walked down the path together. "And this is Blake."

"Hey." She greeted Velvet with a simple wave. "We've already met." She added.

"Nice seeing you again, Blake. And nice to meet you to Miss Fall." Velvet smiled back.

"You can just call me Ruby."

Maybe this wouldn't be impossible after all. The teacher was going to be a hassle to no end, possibly more teachers as time went on, but at least when it came to making friends it appeared easy enough. For the rest of the stroll the trio just chatted, Ruby and Velvet getting to know one another better and Blake recalling some of the times they played together as kids. And as long as Ruby kept the mission in mind, she didn't have to worry about making any friends around here.

Her priority was the Maiden, nothing more or less. So as long as she kept that in mind, she didn't have to worry about hurting anyone she became attached to, whether emotionally or physically. It was the beginning of a grand journey she wouldn't forget for the years to come, and long struggle to completing her mission, one that would certainly be easier with the friends by her side who knew the answers to anything!

"By the way, what's a Dorm?"

...

...

"Ah, here we are." Velvet announced as the trio finally reached their destination.

Even something as common as this was a world of wonder for the young Ruby. The large crystalline dome, the gigantic structures, seeing the many people across the large auditorium, the hundreds of different faces of Hunters and Huntresses alike, all with their unique weapons and purpose for being here.

"Ruby!" She heard Yang yelling out, waving at her. "I saved you a spot!" Looking back to her friends with a smile, they nodded amongst themselves before all heading to the same spot. While she didn't mind the added groupie, Yang was sorta hoping to get to know Ruby more by herself. "Hey, I'm Yang." She greeted with a wave.

"The name's Velvet Scarlatina." The bunny girl greeted with a firm handshake.

"Hey, I'm Blake." Ruby's favorite of friends greeted, waving.

"So, how's your first day going, little Rubes?" Yang asked curiously.

"Well-...did you just call me "Little Rubes"?" Ruby questioned looking back.

"Well what else was I supposed to call ya?" Yang shrugged. "Not really many other names that sound catchy or anything. Little White almost works but it just doesn't roll off the tongue to me."

"I wonder if I'd have this problem if my cloak was a different color..." Ruby muttered examining herself. "Anyway, the first day's gone horrible, and it's all because you ditched me!"

"Oh come on, it couldn't have been that bad." Yang said knowingly.

"It WAS that bad! First there was this mean girl, then she started yelling at me, then I exploded..." She complained.

"Yikes... meltdown already huh?" She commented, not knowing the serious meaning of it.

"No, I mean I literally exploded a hole in front of the school! And then I try to be a good student and stop a bunch of bullies, who I'm pretty sure I just made enemies with, then I get yelled at by the teacher and I swear she has it out for me!" Now probably would've been the best excuse to start crying, given everything that has happened up to this point. In less than thirty minutes, she made enemies with several bullies, a really mean and scary girl, and to top it all off a teacher who apparently has it out for her. At the rate this was going, she was going to either burst into flames or drown in the school's pool within the next two hours!

"Eesh, was it really that bad?"

"I don't think Ms. Goodwitch actually has it out for you, Ruby," Blake said trying to cheer her up "she just cares a lot about all the students as a whole."

"Yeah but I do agree about Glynda and all that." Velvet replied. "She seemed bothered by Ruby in particular for some reason."

"Well, she is the one who arrested me," Ruby mentioned, "and she didn't seem too pleased with me during the interrogation process. Either way she's not even the scary one! It's that white haired crabby girl, who did nothing but yell at me for everything I did, and I'm pretty sure that- "

"You!" Weiss suddenly shouted from behind.

"Ah!' Ruby yelped jumping into Blake's arms. "Oh god, it's happening again!"

"You're lucky we weren't blown off the side of the cliff!" She berated.

"Oh my god, you really exploded." Yang was in disbelief.

"It was an accident-" Ruby tried to reply before jumping out of Blake's arms. "It was an accident!" She was cut off as Weiss held out a pamphlet to her face. "What's this?"

"The Schnee Dust Company is not responsible for any injuries or damages sustained while operating a Schnee Dust Company product. Although not mandatory, the Schnee Family highly encourages their customers to read and familiarize themselves with this easy-to-follow guide to Dust applications and practice in the field." Ruby could only feel her head overflowing with the oncoming information, slowly nodding off as her pupils shrank with each passing syllable. How did this girl process while moving her mouth so quickly at the same time!?

"Uhhhh..." Ruby nodded off, head swirling with the influx of information.

"You really want to start making things up to me?" Weiss asked.

"Oh! Absolutely!" Those were the only words Ruby knew how to reply to.

"Read this and don't ever talk to me again." She ordered before marching away, shoving the pamphlet into Ruby's hands as she did.

"Oooh..." Ruby moaned.

This is what Blake hated most about the Schnees. They could act all high and mighty they wanted, provide charity events and auctions to keep up appearances, preach the practices about using dust wisely to any person in the world, yet deep down they're nothing more than money-grubbing jerks who exploit labor forces to do what they want them to do. They don't care for the people around them, they don't care for anyone or anything that gets in their way and gets torn down, all they care about is making a nice profit. It didn't mean necessarily they treated people bad personally, but they just thought so high and mighty of themselves that they thought they could act in any particular manner of their choosing to just about anyone!

At least that's how Blake saw it. And why wouldn't she? Nearly half the protests from her family when she was with them were always involving the Schnee Dust Company in some way. Whether it was their exploitations, their unethical dealings and trade secrets, or their discrimination against the Faunus workers compared to others, there was always something they did that the Faunus hated. And *shockingly*, they never seemed to care even when the Faunus protested, they just made things harder.

Most importantly, they messed with her friend.

"Don't let her bother you Ruby," Blake tried to comfort before looking back to the Schnee girl, speaking louder for her sake, "after all, Schnee's aren't known for their hospitality, just their methods of making a quick buck." Those words stopped the Schnee girl in her tracks.

"Excuse me!?" She yelled, marching back to Blake as she glared into her eyes. "Would you mind repeating that to me again?"

"I'm just saying, I'm surprised you have as many workers as you do if you treat them any better than you treat Ruby, especially the Faunus like Velvet." She stated. Velvet nodded in agreement as she looked sternly to the Schnee girl. She would've preferred if Blake didn't try to hid her own Faunus heritage, but she respected her privacy all the same.

"How dare you!" She snapped back. "I don't know what your problem is, but the Schnee Dust Company provides help and services for the rest of the world thank you very much. And we don't discriminate any of our workers."

"Oh yeah, and I'm sure mining collapse back in Mistral nearly a decade ago wasn't abandoned due to the fact the trapped miners just *happened* to be all Faunus either, huh?"

"I'll have you know the Schnee Company did everything in it's power save all of it's workers at that time! The people trapped below were already declared dead."

"And I'm sure you gave everything in your power to save them, just like you saved the humans above in only a single day..."

"For your information-!"

The argument was beginning to reach the point where both Velvet and Yang were a little freaked out, the two girls never planning to argue against the other to their last breath even if it killed them. You could pacifically see the sparks created by the amount of friction these two were creating, the sparks merging into pure bolts as they connected to each others' eyes!

Out of all of this, only one of the several girls actually found this scene to be peaceful.

"Dawwww," Ruby fawned poking her fingers, "this is just like those cartoon shows. You two will fight now like bitter rivals and by the end of it all you'll be great friends!" If looks could kill, Ruby would've been dead, brought back to life, then killed again as both girls shot their spark-creating glare at the hooded girl herself, Ruby feeling herself shrinking on the spot. "Never mind..." She eeped.

"Ahem..." The voice over the speaker caught the attention of the fellow students, Ruby and co. included, all gazing at the sight of the headmaster at the center stage. It was Professor Ozpin, standing next to Glynda. "I'll keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge. To hone your craft an acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of people and your fellow students." Ruby smiled, looking among her fellow friends with excitement. It was a decent change of pace to see everyone smiling, or close to it for some, as opposed to glaring angrily at each other. "But I look amongst you and all I see is wasted energy, and misguided deeds."

Ruby's heart felt a chord struck at the very last words. She couldn't explain why, or tell if the tension and nerves were getting to her, but she was almost positive that one specific line was directed to her of all people. That couldn't be right, could it? After all, there were plenty of other questionable people around here, like that Cardin guy she could see at the front of the crowd. And if Glynda told Ozpin about their little brief encounter earlier, he must've been referring to just that.

Yeah, that must be it.

"Students in need of purpose, direction." He continued. "You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It's up to you to take the first step." Ruby mentally nodded in agreement.

While she didn't like to agree with anything her fellow enemies were saying, she did at least understand their meaning. In a way, it was a lot like her. She already had the purpose she needed, she just needed to direct that energy all into focus and in one direction. And he was wrong about the knowledge not freeing her. She needed the knowledge, she needed to know where the maiden was! As soon as she did that, as soon as she killed the maiden herself, she could leave this accursed place, return to her loving family once more. And she just needed to take the first step, hopefully this time not into some scary girl's luggage.

With his announcement done, he walked off stage as Glynda continued the following announcements. "You will all gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."

"He seemed kinda off, like he wasn't all there." Yang commented .

"I guess that just comes with being the headmaster to hundreds of students." Velvet shrugged. "Must be some stress getting to him or something."

It was a feeling Ruby was trying to shrug off. No matter how much she convinced herself, she was positive Ozpin was already getting a grasp on her true motives for being here. The more she continued to act like a normal student, she was sure she could maintain her secrecy, but at the same time that would also make her task take even longer.

And every second that she spent here was another second closer to her goals being crushed.

...

...

With the evening drawn near, the sun slowly descended as it shrouded the students of Beacon under the nights sky. As instructed from the teacher herself, many of the students found themselves returned to the ballroom that very day, all dressed in their own colorful and unique Pajamas,and ready for bed with numerous sleeping bags and pillows stretched across the long ground.

Ruby herself, naturally, was no exception. She sported her own grey-white tank and her favorite little lightblue slippers. She wore a brightly-colored orange pair of of pants, patterned with numerous flames spreading across the sides. And, as one of her more favorite pieces of sleepware, a dark sleeping mask with grimm-like eyes stitched on the front.

Even with this, she didn't part with her hooded cloak, keeping it within the sleeping bag with her.

It was within this peaceful moment of time that she found herself with her sleeping bag next to Blake, the young girl resting her head on the back of Blake's legs while the older girl read to herself lying on her stomach near some candlelight, pausing every now and then as Ruby continued to chat. Blake herself made absolutely sure she was situated within her sleeping bag before reading, not wanting the small chance of her tail being exposed at any point.

"-and after that, our moms made us take a bath to wash off all the flour." Ruby said, reminiscing the good times they had.

"I remember." Blake said smiling a little. "I used to hate taking baths back then, it would always give me goosebumps whenever I touched water."

"Hahaha, I remember you running out of the tub terrified butt-naked, it took your mom forever to find you hiding under my mom's bed... well... fake mom I guess."

The subtle comment made Blake look back. "So you found out the truth then, huh?"

"I was wondering if she ever told you about that."

"Yeah, sorry. My mom always told me never to mention it unless you brought it up first." She said to her regret.

"It's alright, I'm not mad about it or anything," Ruby stared off into the ceiling, "though it did eventually lead to me running away. I just couldn't handle living somewhere with so many liars around me."

"And you've been alone ever since?"

"Hmm..." Ruby could only mumble. It was hard lying to Blake of all people about this. It wasn't that she minded lying to her, much less anything about it, it's the fact Blake blamed herself for something that never even happened that made her feel guilty. She was gonna have to get used to this, no matter what happened.

"Hey girls!" The chipper voice of Yang spoke out, carrying her sleeping bag with her. "Room for one more?

"Knock yourself out." Ruby replied, watching as Yang set up her sleeping bag next to Blake.

"Ah, that's better. Hard to find an open space with so many people spread around here." She commented, leaning to her side to face the other two. "Nice bow."

"I thought there was plenty of space around the edges though?" Blake wondered.

"Yeah, but I prefer not having a chatting buddy with only the wall." She said rolling her eyes, gazing back to the numerous people around. "So, what'cha think of this place? It's like one big slumber party, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess," Ruby said looking around, "though I don't think my mom would like all the boys around here..."

"I know I do, mrrrow..." Yang mewed, unaware of how it looked to see a girl pretending to be a cat right next to a Faunus like Blake. "So what's the deal with you two anyway? You guys know each other or something?"

"Eh, I guess you could say that." Blake replied closing her book.

"Our families kinda worked together a long time ago, so we practically grew up with one another." Ruby explained, being careful not to delve too far into the details.

"We always met up at least once a month for the weekend, so we hung out ever since we were little. We were kinda like sisters."

"Yeah..." It sounded pretty nice to Yang.

"Until a few years ago when our parents stopped working, I knew Ruby ever since she was in diapers."

"Mmmh I'll have you know I was practically potty trained by then!" Ruby said blushing with puffed cheeks. "And I wasn't wearing diapers, they were pull-ups."

"Not at night they weren't."

"Blaaaake!" Ruby grumbled again, throwing her pillow at the Faunus head. Yang couldn't help but laugh at the scene before her. They definitely acted like sisters.

"Sounds like you two had the best of times, huh?" To say Yang wasn't jealous of what they had would be a complete lie. "For me, it was just me and my dad growing up, but I had plenty of friends at school."

"Well that sounds great in my opinion." Ruby commented. "Honestly, I was kinda sheltered growing up. My mom always wanted to keep me close, so unless I was with Blake and my Big Sis, I was usually around the house 24/7."

"But you had a pretty great place to live, Ruby." Blake said handing her back the pillow. "I remember how it always looked like a castle, at least an apartment."

"Yeah, but you spend your whole life growing up in one place and you miss out on a lot." Ruby yawned as she stood up, stretching her arms. "Anyone know where the bathroom is around here?"

"Down the hall, second door on the right." Blake replied.

"Thanks, be back in a bit."

"Let us know if you need help changing!" Yang teased.

"Har har, very funny." Ruby chuckled quietly, being careful as she stepped around the many students before her.

...

"Phew." Ruby sighed as she finally shut the bathroom door, locking it in place as she slid against it.

To say it's been a tiring day would be an understatement. In less than twelve hours, she's been flown across the sky, entered an academy filled with students, made enemies with said students and staff alike, and finally reunited with her sister she hasn't seen for ages. It's been quite the day.

At least she was behind enemy lines. Oh wait, that was bad. She was behind enemy lines. From here on out, the only one who literally had her back was Wolfie. She could depend on Blake to help her out through most of her troubles, but asking her to help in her mission wasn't possible. Even on the off chance she actually did agree to help her, she wouldn't want to involve one of her best friends in something so big. The last she wanted was to make life any harder for her friend like it was going to be for her.

With the coast clear, and feeling sure no one was spying on her from the bathroom of all things, she quickly dug through her pajama's pants pocket, sitting on the lid of the toilet seat as she called the most calming person she could think of.

 _*ring-ring*_

 _*ring-ring*_

"Hello?"

"Hey mom!"

"Ruby!" Cinder gasped with joy. "Oh thank goodness you called! Is everything ok? Are you hurt? Do you need help? Did a boy touch you!? I swear to god if any boy touch you, I'm gonna rip off his-!"

"MOM!" Ruby yelped. "It's ok, I'm fine. I'm just checking in now."

"Huff, sorry sweetie. It's just... You've never been on your own before like this."

"I know mom, but really, I'll be okay. It's only been three days."

"I know but... ugh, you know I'm just worried about you."

Her worry wasn't misplaced. Throughout all the time she's been with Ruby, not once had Ruby been by herself for over two days. Whether it's with someone else, or living in Salem's domain for the last several years, she's always been with someone she could trust. Now, she was somewhere she couldn't afford to trust anyone, somewhere she wouldn't be able to get to if help was needed for at least several days.

"I know mom, but I'm fine. I'm just letting you know things are going fine." Ruby assured. "Oh, by the way! Blake's here too!"

"Blake?"

"Yeah, Blake! You know, the Faunus? Daughter of the White Fang people?"

"Oh, Blake!" Cinder realized. "I didn't expect her to show up there of all place."

"You're telling me. I was so excited to see her!"

"Sweetie, you're not going to-"

"No, it's fine mom. I don't plan on telling her anything, that would just make things harder for her too."

"Well, just keep your focus on the mission, ok? I'm glad that you have friends there but don't let them get in the way of things, alright?"

"It's alright, I know. Tomorrow we're supposed to take some sort of field test or something, I don't know the full details, Ozpin and Glynda weren't really specific."

"Ozpin... How are you with him, Ruby?" Cinder asked worriedly. "Is he suspicious or something?"

"Depends on what you mean. If he's suspicious of me, I don't know, but he makes me uneasy. As for Glynda, well... I'm not sure she plans on making things easy for me."

"Are you sure you'll be fine then, Ruby? Just say the word, and we might be able to pull you out in a few days at most."

"Thanks, but no thanks. I'll be fine mom, I promise."

 _*knock*_

 _*knock*_

 _*knock*_

Ruby nearly dropped her phone as she jumped from surprise at the door knocking. "I'll be out in one minute!" She called over. "Mom, sorry but I got to go. I'll call you later."

"Well alright... be sure to keep me up to date every week, ok?"

"I will. I gotta go now. Love you."

"Love you too, sweetie."

*click*

With another sigh, Ruby closed her scroll as she walked over to the door. Tomorrow would determine the first of many things for Ruby's new life, and possibly determine how much easier or harder the rest of her journey was going to be from this point forward.

 _*knock*_

 _*knock*_

"I'm coming, just hang on!" Ruby yelled irritatedly as she opened the door. "Seriously, keep your pants on-" She was cut off by the just-as-surprised face of the person behind the door. Weiss Schnee. "Oh! Hey Weiss!"

"Oh god, it's you again!"

...

...

A/N: Ah, and another fun episode down the drain ^^ Will be honest, this was going to be just episode 2 itself and i was gonna post 3 tomorrow, problem is while the 2nd one came out to a decent size, the 3rd one was only around 3.6k, so I decided to merge the two together. Don't get too used to that, I might even just go ahead and switch it back again in case i dont get to tomorrow's episode soon enough...

Well anyway, hope you all enjoyed! Do note like the first two seasons, these first two are going to be a bit more comedy based too with some action thrown in the mix here and there. It'll get more serious as time progresses and whatnot. I might even start doing RWBY Chibi bits of my own series at the end of these from time to time, who knows :P?

Leave a like fav and review as always, and hope to see you soon ^^!


	25. Vol 1 Episode 4: Initiating the Future!

_**A/N: 6.5k Pre A/N's. Sorry if this is a little shorter folks, but did say they would be rather big and small. I also would like to announce, this one does kind of go a little more into the next episode, but only by like a minute or two (Which is still a good chunk of the episode since it only had like 4-5 minutes to it... But was still necessary.**_

 _ **I got work tonight so I'm even posting this from there, just having it loaded in my doc manager to post for later. So sorry if anything was seeming rushed a bit or anything, just didn't want to disappoint the fans ^^**_

 _ **Anyway, no proof-reads tonight, so guaranteed too many possible spelling errors here and there XP just hope you can tolerate that till later tonight when I get home from work so I can fix those XP**_

 _ **And big shoutout to Sani2341, for making the scenes added for the intro! Some of them work greatly, some are just fine, but one or two of them I might need to keep out. Not out of being bad or anything, but because he might need to rework those ones after the next couple episodes (they might contain spoilers X)... ) But either way, huge thanks to him. if anyone else wants to add to them, send me a message with the scene ideas written out, and I'll see what I can do. I might even just add people's daily scenes to the intro and take turns with whose I do till we reach the end of the first volume.**_

 _ **So with that spamming junk out of the way, enjoy!**_

 _..._

...

...

 ** _~This will be the day we've waited for~_**

 _Cinder and Salem are seen standing on a balcony on the side of the latter's home looking out in the distance to where Vale would be. As they look up to a Nevermore flying overhead, the camera pans up as well, showing an orange sky that slowly turns blue._

 ** _~This will be the day we open up the door~_**

 _Returning back down from its view of the sky, we see Ruby opening the door to Beacon's main hall, Wolfie peaking out behind her, Blake standing next to her, oblivious to the Grimm's presence._

 ** _~I don't wanna hear your absolution;~_**

 _The Camera 'flies' through the hallways until it settles on Ozpin going through illegible notes on his scroll next to a photo of young miss Fall._

 ** _~Hope you're ready for a revolution~_**

 _Outside his window, dozens of students can be seen steping together and looking up in awe as the screen is overtaken by a storm of white petals_

 ** _~Welcome to a world of new solutions~_**

 _One of the petals remain before a black background and is revealed to be Ruby as she pulls out Crescent Flame and starts twirling her Scythe around, leaving a burning crimson Halo above herself._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of bloody evolution~_**

 _The red halo turns into Wolfie's red Iris as the camera zooms out revealing the pool of blood beneath the Grimm. before he dissolves into a shadow and to the side._

 ** _~In time, your heart will open minds~_**

 _The shadow flows beneath Ruby cloak who is standing with her team, a conflicted expression on her face. Soon though it is replaced with a look of determination as the Camera pans once more._

 ** _~A story will be told~_**

 _When the camera settles on Ruby's viewpoint we see Amber kneeling before Cinder, before the camera zooms back and her surroundings turn into the vault beneath Beacon._

 ** _~And victory is in a simple soul~_**

 _We see a final shot of a young Ruby hugging her family, which reveals itself to be an old picture in Neo's hand, who is sitting at the conference table in Salem's fortress all alone._

...

With the rising sun, the lone figure started to stir asleep. Instantly ,their mind was filled with memories, details, info, everything they needed to be aware of for the morning day. Today was going to be one of the most important days of their lives, and even when they blinked themselves awake, they knew that had to maintain absolute focus.

"Waaaake up lazy bud!" The all too familiar sound of an all too familiar friend greeted them as they awoke, being the first person they saw in this arduous day.

This, was Nora Valkyrie.

 _*sigh*_

"It's morning, it's morning, it's morning, it's moooorning~!" She cheered in a sing-sung tone, flipping out from spot to spot as they did.

Yup, this was how the day usually went for Ren. Whenever it came to Nora, she would get overexcited about any little thing the two did together.

Whether it was brushing his teeth...

"I can't believe we've been at Beacon for a full 24 hours! Not that I thought we'd get kicked out or anything, I mean you're the perfect student and I'm, well, me! But it's just crazy, you know?-"

Preparing his belongings...

"-We've been friends for soooooo long. What are the odds that we'd still be together? Well, not "together" together. Not that I'm saying you're not handsome! You are handsome, but that'd just be weird... Right?"

Eating breakfast in the morning, even when her mouth was full of pancakes...

"Right. What was I thinking? But still, I hope we end up on the same team together. That would be awesome!" She cheered, punching her fist behind her in the air.

 _*Whack!*_

"OW!"

She paid whomever no mind, even after they crashed to the floor with their breakfast spilled on them, as she slurped up her pancakes. "Ooh! We should come up with some sort of plan! To make sure we end up on the same team together! What if we bribe the headmaster? No, that won't work, he has the school."

And even when it came to gathering his weapons and gear from his locker for the day's mission...

"I know! We'll have some sort of signal! Like a distress signal!" She paused briefly with a gasp. "A secret signal so we can find each other in the forest! Can you imitate a sloth?"

"Nora..." Ren finally spoke after many hours.

"Yes, Ren?" She waited for a response as he holstered his weapons into his sleeves.

"I don't think sloths make a lot of noise." He commented.

"...That's why it's so perfect!" She gushed. "No one will suspect we're working together." Ren could only roll his eyes. If something seemed implausible, she would still think of it as plausible no matter what. That's just the sort of morning routine he grew up with, growing alongside Nora for many years.

"Come on Nora, let's go." He said walking away.

"But not "together" together." She giggled following him, passing by several students of particular interest as she did.

"Are you sure you didn't provoke them?" Blake wondered as Ruby got prepared from her locker.

"No, of course not!" She whined. "They just punched me out of nowhere in the lunchroom, they didn't even care enough to notice! It took forever to get the syrup out of my clothes..."

"Well it didn't seem to ruin your mood, all things considered." Blake commented.

That was the one fact Ruby couldn't deny, smiling a little to herself as she prepared. Today was going to be the biggest of all days, one of the most decisive factors of her teenage life! Today she would take the initiation test alongside many other first years of the academy, one that would ultimately decide what team she was going to be put together with, and who was going to be the leader of said team!

She really didn't care for the details. She could be leader of it all or a simple grunt of the team, yet she would always be happy as long as she got Blake to be a part of said team. Just picturing it, the four years together after being gone for so long, or at least until Ruby found the maiden within the academy, alongside her best friend who wouldn't know about Ruby's true purpose within these walls.

And she was completely fine with that! Even if she told Blake her true reasoning behind all this for being here, and even if she was completely fine with it and even wanted to help, she just couldn't bring herself to reveal it. Blake was her best friend, and she didn't want her to get into as much trouble as she possibly would if she ever got caught. On top of that, the secrecy would be easier to keep if Ruby remained the only student around here who knew about her ultimate goal.

All she needed to do for now was keep a low profile, doing whatever it took to keep herself from looking suspicious and the staff around here off her back. She already had Glynda on her hide like there was no tomorrow. Add one more teacher, or worse of all Ozpin himself, on top of that and there was no way she was going to even make it through a single year at this academy.

With a smile, Ruby replied, "Yup, no more awkward small talk, no more 'getting to know you' stuff." She said as she took out her beloved scythe, petting it like she would Wolfie. "Today I get to let my sweetheart do the talking."

"Well, just remember you won't be the only one going through initiation." Blake reminded walking over. "You're going to be meeting a lot of new people here, some you may not even like, like Cardin."

"Eheheheheh," the thought of it gave Ruby the shivers, "don't even say that name around me till after initiation. The last nightmare I want to even think of is me ending up on his team."

"Not like that," Blake smiled, 'I mean you'll have to learn to get along with new people and work together. You never really were an 'out there' kind of girl growing up you know."

"Ugh, you sound just like my mom. And it wasn't my fault anyway. I just never really got out that much."

One of the sad realities of Ruby's young life. Without going outside, at least that often, she never got to meet new people. Without meeting new people she never got to experience the different types of people there were. There were some good people, bad people, ok people, and everything inbetween. Those were the only people she ever knew existed in the world, and because of her sheltered life, she never really understood what accounted for actual nice people and actual mean people. .

"And besides, what does meeting new people have to do with fighting?" Ruby continued. "And secondly, I don't need people to help me grow up. I am a proper lady. I've been told that hundreds of times in my life."

"Was it by your mother?" Blake asked knowingly.

"Yeah, why?" All she got for a first response was a silent moan from the self-entitled older sister.

"But what about when we form teams?" That was the question to finally get to Ruby's nerves.

"Uhm... I-I don't know..." she mumbled, "I-I'll just be on your team or something..."

"M-Maybe you should try to be on someone else's team...?" Blake wondered, regretting it immediately as Ruby rushed up to her sad-eyed.

"Wah? You don't want me on your team...?"

"What- No no, it's not like that." She said trying to ease her sadness. "I'm just saying you shouldn't be ready for anything that comes up around here. No one knows exactly how the placements go, so even if we both decide we wanna be teammates, that might not even happen."

"Huff, I know..." Ruby moaned.

"Besides, even if it don't end up on the same time, it might be good for you." On a whole, Blake was actually being series for herself. Ruby's never had much experience with others, so who knows how well any interactions with other people might go. "It might help you break out of your shell a little if you get to see what other people are like. Most of the people you consider sisters aren't actually sisters, Ruby. We're just really great friends."

"Break out of my shell?" Ruby repeated completely baffled. "I don't need help breaking out of my shell, that's just-"

"Ridiculous!" A teenage blond boy said, taking the words right out of her mouth. He wasn't really paying too much attention of their conversation though, just the piece of paper in his hands. "There's no way I put my gear in locker 635 yesterday!? I would've remembered counting that high! Ugh, why does that have to happen today!?" He continued to groan on as he passed several other students socializing with one another.

"So Pyrrha, have you given any thought on who's team you would like to be on?" Weiss asked curiously. "I'm sure everyone must be eager to unite with such a strong, well known individual, like yourself."

"Hmm... I'm not quite sure." She replied. "I was just planning on letting the chips fall where they may."

"Well, I was just thinking maybe we could be on a team together." Weiss proposed.

"Well that sounds grand!" The words brought nothing but pure joy to Weiss.

"Great!" Within the inner subconsciousness of her dark mind, a cloud of utter evil was forming as she continued to think to herself. "This will be perfect! The smartest girl in class combined with the strongest girl in class. Together we will be unstoppable! I can see it now: We'll be popular, we'll be celebrities, we'll get perfect grades! Nothing can come between us now!"

"You know what else is great?" The blonde from thirty seconds ago asked, throwing himself between them as he gazed at the heiress. "Me, Jaune Arc. Nice to meet you."

"You again?" She was annoyed within the first half-second of seeing him, having a brief encounter with him earlier after the auditorium assembly yesterday.

"Nice to meet you, Jaune!" Pyrrha greeted, ready to shake her hand.

"Yeah yeah." He muttered, pushing her aside. "So, Weiss! Couldn't help but overhear your fondness of me the other day." He flexed with pride, unaware of the facepalming from the same girl behind him.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me."

"Don't worry, no need to be embarrassed. So, been hearing rumors about teams! I was thinking you and me would make a good one. What do you say?"

"Actually," Pyrrha spoke up, "I think the teams are comprised of 4 students each, so-"

"You don't say." He muttered before leaning over. "Well hot-stuff, play your cards right and maybe you could join up with the winning team."

"Jaune, is it?" Weiss quickly butted in, separating them. "Do you have any idea who you are talking to?"

"Not in the slightest, Snow Angel." He said with pride.

"This is Pyrrha." She stated, gesturing to the aforementioned person.

"Hello again." She waved.

"Pyrrha graduated top of her class at Sanctum."

"Never heard of it." Jaune said with a simple shrug.

"Ah!" She couldn't believe what she was hearing! "She's won the Mistral Regional Tournament 4 years in a row... A new record!

"The what?"

"... She's on the front of every Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes box!" She huffed flailing her arms angrily.

"OHMIGOOOOOSH!" A voice cried out. Before Weiss even had time to respond, she was crashed into, sending said girl hurtling into the lockers, as she was replaced with an overzealous white-hooded girl. "YOU'RE PUMPKIN PETE'S MARSHMALLOW GIRL MASCOT?!" The girl screamed with stars in her eyes. The same level of excitement, at least by half of it's amount, was shared by the other fellow blonde boy.

"That's you? They only do that for star athletes and cartoon characters!" Jaune mentioned.

"Who cares about that!" Ruby squealed rummaging through her pockets. "Pumpkin Pete's is my all time favorite cereal! Can I have your autograph!?" She asked hopefully, handing her a small a small pocket-sized notebook and a pen.

"Eh heh, sure..." Pyrrha nodded with a small blush, signing the girl's notebook. "But you do know Pumpkin Pete's cereal isn't really that good for you right?"

"What are you kidding me!? It's the best tasting cereal in the world!" At least to Ruby it was. The stars in her eyes only doubled as Pyrrha returned the signed autograph book with her signature on it.

"Ruby!" Blake groaned, pulling the back of Ruby's hood and snapping the girl out of her state of wonder with a small choke.

"Ack-!" She squeaked.

"I'm sorry about that," Blake apologized to Pyrrha, "she gets a little... excited, pretty easily."

"Just a little?!" Weiss grumbled marching back to the group, hair in a mess and her clothes scuffed up.

Ruby could only look at her in total confusion. "Jeez Weiss, what happened to you?"

Every fiber of her being wanted to do nothing more than to strangle Ruby with her own hood at that very moment. Unfortunately, the only thing keeping her from doing so, at least that were important to her, was the sight of Pyrrha before them all. It would be one thing if it was just the rest of the group for sure, but she needed to do everything in her power to maintain a composed and professional status around the red-haired girl.

One misstep could see her ignoring Weiss. One scene of her breaking out in a fight would keep her from wanting to socialize with Weiss. Any and all actions that could put her elite status on the brink of ruin, and she wouldn't even want to consider ending up on Weiss' team of all things! So no matter how badly she wanted to, she had to maintain composure.

"Ghhhhh!" She gritted her teeth tightly to avoid any shouting. "Nothing." Not wanting to explode on the spot, she switched her attention back to the previous headache before her. "Anyway, so after hearing all of this, do you really think you're in a position to ask her to be on your team?"

"Wait, we can ask to be on someone's team?" Ruby gasped as her eyes widened. "Oh pleeeeease, Pyrrha! Please be on my team!" She begged. There could be nothing better than having someone from Pumpkin Pete's cereal being on her team, save for her closest friend Blake.

"Wha- No you can't choose the team!" Weiss nearly snapped.

"Ugh, it probably wouldn't matter anyway." Jaune sighed depressingly. "I don't think I have any right to ask that anyway."

"Actually Jaune, I think you'd make a great leader." Pyrrha comforted, patting his shoulder.

"D'oh, stop it!" Being praised by one of the greatest mascots in the world was like an angel singing to him, being washed away in a stream of joy.

"Hey yeah!" Ruby jumped in again, still unable to get over the fact one of the faces of her favorite cereal were in her presence. "It would be great! You, me, Jaune, and Blake," she paused pulling her friend in, "we'd be the best team ever!"

"Ruby..." Blake mumbled.

"Excuse me!?" That was the last straw for the fellow Schnee. "What makes you think you have any right to ask Pyrrha on your team of all things?"

"Because I asked her nicely." Ruby replied casually, not seeing the big picture here.

"Kindness withholding, you can't just ask someone like Pyrrha to join your team!" Why was it this one annoying girl couldn't get that?! If Ruby was ever on a team like Pyyrha's, it would not only devastate Weiss, but the natural laws of the universe would practically implode on itself! "Your kind of behavior isn't something a team like Pyrrha's should have!"

"Oh don't worry Weiss," Jaune swooned with a minor flex, "you'll be welcomed on our team too, with open arms I might add."

"Teams can only comprise of 4 members though." Blake tried to point out to no avail. Everyone was either focused on Pyrrha joining their team, or convincing one of the others to join with them.

"Sounds like Pyrrha's on board for team Jaune. Spots are filling up quick. Now, I'm not supposed to do this, but maybe I could pull some strings. Find a place for you? What do you say?"

"Wait... Pull some strings?" Ruby raised a brow at this, dropping all excitement previously held. "What kind of strings can you pull? Like around the academy?"

This could've been a great ace in the hole. If she could convince Jaune to use his string-pulling powers, it could help her further her goals of finding the maiden, and hasten her attempts to do so! He could get her unrestricted access to rooms, possibly help her get out of some homework they might need in the future, the possibilities were endless!

Better yet, if he could pull strings when it came to the teachers around here or maybe even Ozpin himself, she could make it so there was no way they could possibly bother her! With that, there was no way anyone would hinder her search for the Fall Maiden, making everything easier and manageable within a month's time at most! This was just a too good of an opportunity to waste!

"U-Uhhh well.." Jaune scratched his chin nervously. Despite her takings with Ruby, Weiss found this too good of a chance to remain silent. The sooner she got Jaune off her back, the easier it would be to convince Pyrrha to join her team after she got rid of Ruby.

"Yeah, Juaaaane," Weiss grinned, "what kind of strings can a big macho man like yourself pull?" All she needed was to get him to either fess up, or take off running, whichever came first.

"W-Well umm... I could uhhh..."

 _*ding-dong*_

Everyone was silenced by the ring of the announcement bell. Before them one of the large TV monitors on the sides started speaking, even with the imagery remaining black.

"Would all first year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation?" Glynda could be heard announcing. "Again, all first year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately."

"Oh, saved by the bell." Jaune was relieved. Weiss just rolled her eyes before leaving the group behind. A Schnee would never allow themselves to be late for the first day of school, or pre-first day of school in this case.

"Huh! We have to go! Come on Blake, quit goofing around! We haveta go!" She yelled worriedly, dashing through the halls with her friend in hand behind her.

Yup, this was exactly the same little Ruby Blake knew growing up with. Easily distracted, easily excitable, and easy to assume someone else was responsible for any trouble she unknowingly caused herself. No matter how many years had passed, she was exactly the same little girl she played with long ago.

...Perhaps a little too like her.

"It was nice meeting you, Jaune." Pyrrha waved as she walked along the halls.

With a deep breath to himself, Jaune cleared his thoughts as he head through the halls.

Today was going to be the most important day in the history of the world for the students! They needed to be vigilant, positive, tough, and intimidating! In a school like this, it was eat or be eaten, in more meanings of the word if the Grimm ever became involved! All they could rely on was their quick wits and tenacity to see them through the end of the year alive, and whatever team they ended up with by the time it was all over!

Now if only he remembered which way to the cliffs, he'd be on a roll.

...

...

The sun was brightly overhead in the middle of the day, all of the students being lined up side by side before the headmaster and Glynda. Before them was an endless expanse of forest and mountains. Trees as far as the eyes could see, clear blue skies in the whether above them, and barely a cloud in sight. It was the perfect conditions for weather for any outdoor activity, pivotal for a day like this.

This is the day all of them, Ruby especially, had been training for. For a chance to reach Beacon academy, become the Hunters and Huntresses they loved to hear about, and the heroes the world needed right now. It was going to be the most important day of their single lives, and one that would ultimately change the course of history forever.

Whoever they ended up with after today was going to be more than just a team. They would become friends, family, allies against the nefarious forces of the world both Grimm and otherwise alike. They would have to trust them from this day forward, no matter who ended up where. And all of that started after today, where one little field test would determine their very lives!

"For years, you have trained to become warriors." Ozpin said, looking amongst the dozens of students. Like always, at least when Ruby first met him, he was calm and composed with either a warm cup of coffee or tea in his hand. "And today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

From order of left to right, the students were lined up as followed: Jaune, Cardin, Ren, Yang, Nora, Ruby, Blake, Pyrrha, Weiss, Shadow 1, Shadow 2, Russel, and four more Shadow people. Many fine young students, each with their own unique weapons, own unique semblances, and a world of endless possibilities before them.

"Now," Glynda spoke stepping to his side, "I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... Today."

"What? Aww..." Ruby moaned.

"Relax Ruby, there's still a good chance we might end up on a team." Blake whispered.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon." Ozpin stated. "So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well."

"Ah..." Ruby moaned again. As long as Blake was on her team, that was fine. Even if she ended up on the same team as that horrible Cardin, she could tolerate it as long as she had friends that were near.

Weiss grinned to herself, eyes shifting over to Pyrrha. With those two on the same team, she was confident there would be no opposing force that could stop them! Just as long as Ruby remained out of the picture, there's no telling what having her on their team could do, nor the utter chaos she could cause.

"That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years." Ozpin concluded.

And just like that Ruby's world was shattered.

"What?!"

"See? I told you!" Nora grinned, looking over to Ren.

"After you've partnered up," Ozpin continued, "make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die." He looked along as one student in particular raised his hand at this. "Yes, Ruby?"

"W-When you say opposition, do you mean other people like bandits or...?" She didn't really know what would've been worse. Bandits she would have to destroy, aka kill, or the one other force this world was constantly threatened by.

"The Grimm." He clarified.

Not too surprisingly, over half of the students before him glanced at one another with unease. He himself was confident in their fighting abilities, but their worries was understandable. Not many of them had ever fought Grimm to such a large extent, and now they were about to jump head first into a den of nothing but monsters. Not even the staff would think about exploring the woods on their own, at least not for long.

The reactions of course did vary among the individuals. Jaune gulped nervously, Ruby and Blake looked back at each other with mild confidence, Yang punched her fists in excitement, Weiss nodded with certainty, Pyrrha stood at the ready, and Nora simply smiled over at Ren. The reactions varied, but the goal among them were clear.

Complete the objective, or die trying.

"You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation." He added. "But our instructors will not intervene."

Ruby couldn't tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing. On the one hand, that meant she didn't have to worry about staff interference during the initiation, unable to tell if Glynda would've left her to her own devices if otherwise. On the other hand, that made it even more questionable if she would be able to use Wolfie or not. It's not like they could possibly monitor each of them at the exact same time, right? She just had to hope, whatever the situation called for, that she could use Wolfie without worry.

"You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one, and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade them appropriately. Are there any more questions?"

"Yeah, um, sir-" Jaune tried to speak, raising his hand.

"Good." Ozpin replied, ignoring it completely. "Now, take your positions."

None of them hesitated. One by one, each of them had their weapons at the ready.

This, was their moment.

Except for Jaune who continued to raise his hand.

"Uh, sir? I've got, um, a question." He tried again.

 _*Creak*_

With the large creaking sound, the first student was flung before them. From the ground they stood atop, they were thrown into the air at immense speed and trajectory, gliding along it as they made their way into the forest.

 _*Creak*_

Ruby briefly watched as Weiss was one of the first recognizable people thrown across.

"So, this landing strategy-"

 _*Creak*_

There went Pyrrha.

"-thing, uh, w-what is it?"

Shooting a quick smile to the younger student, Blake gave Ruby a warming smile before she was thrown next.

She wasn't too worried about the forest itself, that was for suckers. But much like getting on the ride to a roller coaster you know stretches up to the skies above, she couldn't help it as her heart raced, each second becoming more and more unbearable until it finally happened.

"You're, like, dropping us off or something?"

 ** _*CREAK*_**

And with that Ruby was thrown into the air, with nothing except an endless forest of Grimm before her.

"No." Ozpin replied calmly. "You will be falling."

 _*Creak*_

"Whoohooooo!" Nora cheered as she flew.

"Oh, I see. So, like, did you hand out parachutes for us?" Jaune wondered.

 _*Creak*_

Yang only grinned at the excitement as she flew. First stop free-falling air, next stop a forest full of Grimm. This was going to be awesome!

"No, you will be using your own landing strategy." He informed.

 _*Creak*_

Ren never lost an ounce of his composure as he took off, remaining steady and focused as when he woke up this morning.

"Uhhuh... Yeah..." Jaune mumbled looking around.

 _*Creak*_

Cardin didn't even care about everything before him. By the end of this day, he was going to be Number One!

"So, um, what exactly is a landing strateGYYYYYY!" He screamed as he was thrown. Must've been a real shame too, since there was no telling now if he was actually going to answer that question or not.

And with that, Ozpin just watched. Sipping his drink looking behind him, he watched his beloved new students as they flew across the air like birds learning to fly. Except for wings though, they were all on their own for that.

"Are you sure it's wise to send Ruby out there with the rest?" Glynda asked slightly worried. "We still don't know how dangerous she's going to be through the rest of this year. This initiation alone might prove dangerous for the other students."

"Then I believe this is the perfect time to understand how much of a threat she is." Ozpin replied. "We only know so much about her right now. She seems peaceful to the other students, she doesn't seem frightening to anyone in particular, and I believe you said she *started* a fight yesterday?"

"I don't know who actually started the fight," Glynda admitted, "but she was there when I found her. Just like she was on the day of the robbery."

"And did either of the girls say anything about her causing the trouble?"

"Ugh, no." She groaned. She wasn't trying to look like she was a pure enemy of Ruby, but with the fate of the world at stake she couldn't afford to take any chances whatsoever.

"Then I see no reason to be worried." It was terrifying how calm he was in comparison to her.

"But Professor Oz-"

"I know, Glynda, I know. We can't be too cautious with anything that girl does. Keep her under constant surveillance for the initiation for the time being, but do not interfere with anything."

"And what if she starts attacking any of the students?"

"If she attacks any of the students, then we have the evidence we need to see her under arrest. As for the students themselves, I'm positive she won't be able to hurt them too badly. It would be her against all of them after all."

"And if she doesn't do anything just for now?"

"Then we just watch as the caring teachers we are. They're still children, Glynda, but we must leave it up to them to determine how to handle the future. If we push one way, they'll push towards another. We have to trust in their judgement, for now."

"Huff, you're too lenient and calm about this."

Maybe she was right, maybe she was wrong. None of it mattered to Ozpin. All he was concerned about was seeing how much, if any, of a threat Ruby was going to be. Not just to him and the rest of the school, but the rest of the world in general.

This was going to be the day that they carved their own paths, the day they showed the rest of the world who they truly were, and what they were going to become.

This, was the first day of School.

...

...

 _*crash*_

"Ack-! Stupid birdy!" Ruby yelped, trying to pry the bird plastered to her face as she fell.

She was actually surprised how long they'd been flying for. What she assumed to be a simple matter of seconds ended up being minutes, flying hundreds of miles over the forest itself within such a brief time span. Maybe if she ever did become a bird, she wouldn't mind watching the view from all the way up here.

Or maybe she would just talk to her native birds in their native bird tongue to tell them to get OUT OF THE WAY!

"Ugh! Final- Uh oh..." She eeped. Step one was removing the hazardous bird from her face so she could finally see again. Step two was supposed to be planning her exit strategy in order to safely fall along the forest with her. At least, that was the plan before she saw how close she was to the tress already.

She wasn't much of a studier, her time learning under "Uncle Watts" could prove that, but she could at least get over a majority of the basics just fine. On the other hand, when it came to quick life-threatening reaction timing that determined her very survival, she still had a ways to go in the specific reaction department. She could only tell no amount of time would keep her from crashing into trees if she pulled out her weapon out of nowhere, not to mention the fact even if she did she'd more likely catch the rest of the forest on fire at the same time.

So, there was only one thing to do as she covered herself with her arms.

"WOLFIE!" She screamed.

Almost instantly, within the forest itself, what brief images of Ruby's shadow that made it through the floor, the large wolf-like Grimm began to take shape, already on a running start as it heard the beck and call of her master and pup.

As long as it had even the slightest ounce of Ruby's own shadow in view, it could materialize itself on the spot. Granted, if it was in a situation like this where her shadow faded in and out ever couple seconds, the process would still work, just taking longer than normal.

Thankfully for her, it was just enough time for her to be rescued from possibly plunging to her own death, falling upon Wolfie's fully materialized back as the wolf collapsed from the impact itself, scraping across the ground for several more yards with her pup protected by it's body.

Perhaps she might've overreacted a bit to since her aura would've protected her, but she couldn't afford to waste it either. This was just the beginning of her long journey, and she didn't even know how many Grimm around here there were going to be. These weren't like the Grimm along her grandmother's domain, these would be the very Grimm she feared as a child, ones that would be out for her flesh or worse if they ever got their claws on her.

With the life-threatening event over, Ruby rose slightly from her rattled state, shaking her head clear as she looked over her fallen companion.

"Wolfie! Are you ok?" She petted her with concern. All she needed to bring back the smile was Wolfie looking back, immediately licking her, happy to see that her beloved pup was okay. "Hahaha, ok, ok, you're all better. Good girl." She told her, giving her a small kiss on the snout before sending her back into her shadow. "Ok, so, now I just need to find Blake around here... Huh!"

Her gasp came from the sight of what flew overhead. Several more students, all hidden under the brief shadow they casted, flying above her. There was no telling if Blake was among the crowd, seeing how she herself flew passed several students along the way here, but she didn't care. There was only one priority on her mind at that point.

"Blaaake!" She called out. As much as she promised not to waste too much energy, she couldn't resist. Immediately, she took off with her semblance, leaving a trail of white rose petals behind her, as she took off in the same direction.

All throughout the next several seconds she just kept screaming to herself about finding her long lost companion. It was great to finally meet her after these last several years, but none of that would matter if they weren't all in the same class! They could have different schedules, have different teachers, they might even end up on completely opposite ends of the academy if she didn't team up with her!

She just had to press on, stay on course and stay in the right frame of mind!

Gotta find Blake.

Gotta find Blake.

Gotta find- Huh?

"Huh?"

 ** _*CRASH!*_**

Even in her semblance state, Ruby was relatively good when it came to reflexes. Naturally, a good chunk of that did have to come from planning and processing information as well as how to react to said situation, but even then she had a good degree of reflexes that would get her out of any jam.

However, what she wasn't good at were things popping up in the middle of her out of nowhere, especially when it came to a mysterious figure suddenly walking out from behind a tree. At the speeds she was going, no one would be able to react fast enough, and the person she crashed into would be proof of that themselves if they couldn't get out of the way either.

All she could do was wait until they both stopped rolling around the ground long enough to finally stand up.

Shaking her head to herself, rubbing the small bruise on the side, she panicked as she looked back to her recent victim. "Oh my gosh, I am so sorry!" She apologized, still trying to get the dizzy out of her head. "That was completely stupid of me, honest. I mean I just landed, I was already in distress, and-"

"It's quite alright." The stranger replied, already having recovered and walking their way over to Ruby." Are you okay?" They asked offering a hand. It took Ruby several more seconds for her vision to clear, but once it became focused she could only gasp at who she ran into, gazing into their eyes.

It was both, someone she never expected, at least this early, and someone she was still overjoyed to see. She was, after all, one of her biggest fans.

"Hey Pyrrha!"

...

...

...

 ** _A/N: Annnd another fun chapter added ^^. You know one of the hardest things about being a fanfiction author? It's not being repetitive in your lines or events. I don't mean me replicating this fanfic from the series, I mean the writing itself in general. You might've already noticed some pieces here and there, but the tricky part is trying to use new words without getting to repetitive. I mean how annoying would it be if every line went like_**

 ** _"Hi Blake!" Ruby said._**

 ** _"Hi Ruby!" Blake said._**

 ** _"How's it going?" Ruby said._**

 ** _"Not bad." Blake said._**

 ** _"You do anything fun?" Ruby said._**

 ** _Get the picture XP? It's not really something I can "improve" like everything else, just something that's gonna take getting used to and work gradually on it to keep from being repetitive, and hopefully expand my dictionary X/anyway..._**

 ** _Just heads up, obviously, might get slow for awhile. Pokemon ultra sun is out and loving it (despite only getting a few hours to it X/)not to mention thanks giving next week we all gotta be ready for. Might not have an episode at all tomorrow since I gotta work early, but hopefully this little tease/twist up above will keep you excited long enough to not care ^^!_**

 ** _Anyway leave a like fav and review if you enjoyed, and hope to see you next ep ^^_**


	26. V1 E5: Initiating The Future Part 2

**_A/N: A relatively short chapter, a 6k Pre-A/N bit. But considering this is part two of the same episode, which is ONLY less than 5 minutes, i think it's a good size ^^._**

 ** _Sorry for no post last night folks, was busy with work, pokemon, and Justice league (which is AWESOME!), but on the brighter side of things, I'm going to make it up to you. No 100% guarantees since I plan on getting both parts this time, but my goal for today is, aside from this early post as an apology, is to get ANOTHER post by the end of the night X)! No promises, but it's my goal._**

 ** _Also sorry if, once again, the wording is a bit off. Working on this between two days gets weird for some reason, at least to me. So hopefully a brief snippet of "Grandma salem" in the opening with Neo makes up for that ^^._**

 ** _Enjoy!_**

 ** _..._**

 ** _..._**

...

 ** _~This will be the day we've waited for~_**

 _Cinder and Salem are seen standing on a balcony on the side of the latter's home looking out in the distance to where Vale would be. As they look up to a Nevermore flying overhead, the camera pans up as well, showing an orange sky that slowly turns blue._

 ** _~This will be the day we open up the door~_**

 _Returning back down from its view of the sky, we see Ruby opening the door to Beacon's main hall, Wolfie peaking out behind her, Blake standing next to her, oblivious to the Grimm's presence._

 ** _~I don't wanna hear your absolution;~_**

 _The Camera 'flies' through the hallways until it settles on Ozpin going through illegible notes on his scroll next to a photo of young miss Fall._

 ** _~Hope you're ready for a revolution~_**

 _Outside his window, dozens of students can be seen steping together and looking up in awe as the screen is overtaken by a storm of white petals_

 ** _~Welcome to a world of new solutions~_**

 _One of the petals remain before a black background and is revealed to be Ruby as she pulls out Crescent Flame and starts twirling her Scythe around, leaving a burning crimson Halo above herself._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of bloody evolution~_**

 _The red halo turns into Wolfie's red Iris as the camera zooms out revealing the pool of blood beneath the Grimm. before he dissolves into a shadow and to the side._

 ** _~In time, your heart will open minds~_**

 _The shadow flows beneath Ruby cloak who is standing with her team, a conflicted expression on her face. Soon though it is replaced with a look of determination as the Camera pans once more._

 ** _~A story will be told~_**

 _When the camera settles on Ruby's viewpoint we see Amber kneeling before Cinder, before the camera zooms back and her surroundings turn into the vault beneath Beacon._

 ** _~And victory is in a simple soul~_**

 _We see a final shot of a young Ruby hugging her family, which reveals itself to be an old picture in Neo's hand, who is sitting at the conference table in Salem's fortress all alone._

One Tray. Three cubes of sugar. Two different cups. Two different pots of tea. Two different flavors. Several napkins. A few cookies. And a small cup of cold water.

This was the basic formula Neo had become accustomed to since she started living within Salem's domain. Ruby herself was allowed to live here without worry or fear, save for those studies she had to do, training around here, and time with her "grandmother" Salem preferred to keep private. For the twin-colored haired girl, on the other hand, her livelihood within these walls were less than free.

In addition to caring for Ruby at the time, she was given basic chores throughout the facility to maintain on a daily basis. Cleaning, dishes, cooking, laundry, anything Salem had requested within these halls. It wasn't like she was in a state to argue either, since it was either this or not being able to look after Ruby and living alongside her. She hated the numerous tasks she was given at first, but between that and letting Ruby live by herself in this bizarre castle of Grimm, she chose the lesser of two evils.

Just not the lesser of two funs.

At least Salem didn't have anything against Neo, not on a personal note at least. She just didn't fully trust the person she's barely spoken a sentence to. She's spoken with Ruby a few times on several occasions, and children were easy to handle when it came to manipulation, something Salem strangely felt like doing less when it came to Ruby. But Neo was someone she was constantly in the dark with. What few words she could get out via cue cards were just basic questions here and there, pertaining to any requests or chores she needed to do soon after.

She was at least decent enough to give Neo a day off every week, even though it varied from week to week. Again, it was hard to maintain any sort of trust or relationship with someone who was constantly silent around here, but it's not like Salem disliked the girl. She proved useful in saving time on whatever chores did need to be done, and that meant more time for bonding- I mean training with Ruby.

So, like many days, Neo found herself waiting as the two large doors opened before her, allowing access to the large meeting hall Salem and her crew would usually be found on important days. Days like this, she could just expect Salem, the mysterious woman preoccupied with watching over her young one no matter what the distance was.

"Ah, Neo." That was Salem's usual method of greeting her, allowing her to step before her. Like always, she just waited as Neo set the tray before her, pouring the requested tea, adding the perfect amount of sugar to it, before serving it to her on a saucer. "Thank you." She replied, gesturing the girl to sit on the right of her as she took a sip of tea. As per usual, she listened as she could hear the smaller girl writing on her cue card, only taking a glance when she put the marker down.

-ARE YOU WATCHING HER NOW?-

"I can always watch her if I concentrate, provided her wolf is with her." She replied.

-HOW DOES IT WORK?-

"Ah, I don't think I discussed that, with you at least." She didn't mind explaining it to her. The girl was close to Ruby, so she still had a soft spot in turn for her however small. "It depends on whether or not the wolf is in her shadow or not. When it's submerged, I can see a small degree of space around Ruby, at least stretching out as far as her shadow stretches. It's not ideal, but it does give me a more dimensional view of her than first person. During the night, however, or if there's an entire blanket of shadow or dark around her, the view gets distorted when the wolf's submerged."

-AND WHEN THE WOLF'S OUT?-

"Then it changes, naturally." Just proving her point, her sight shifted to the wolf as it materialized in the forest before it, seeing it running straight ahead as fast as it could. She was curious for a moment as to what the cause of it's sudden rush was, but her answer came when she saw her granddaughter suddenly crash on top of it, falling from the skies above from the looks of it. "When it's out, I can see through it's eyes. Again, only if I concentrate. It would be a hassle if I couldn't turn it off, having to deal with my own vision and it's without end." She decided to let slide the silent chuckle Neo gave at this.

-DO YOU FEEL WHAT IT FEELS TOO?-

"To a miniscule degree." She stated. "I cant feel any pain or injuries it feels, but I can get a small sense of it's emotional state if it flares up. That gives me ample warning if something's wrong with Ruby."

-WHAT'S SHE UP TO NOW?- She asked holding up the sign with one hand as she nibbled on a cookie in the other. It was nice having someone who didn't talk so much with every sentence before her, so she didn't mind in the slightest.

"She's currently undergoing her initiation for Beacon. From here, she'll set about forming a team with whomever she meets first. And it'll remain like that for the next four years... or at least until she finishes her mission." She could practically sense the next question forming in the young Neo's mind, grasping her arm to tell her to stop. "And before you ask, no, the Grimm in that forest aren't under my influence." Even after answering the young girl's question, she still seemed perplexed and confused.

"I can influence Grimm surrounding me, for how long outside of my reach varying. But I can't control any I don't come into contact with myself. That's why Wolfie still obeys Ruby after all these years... or it might be simply due to her peaceful personality. I'm honestly not sure at this point."

-YOU LIKE HER DON'T YOU ^_^-

"Shut up." She paused briefly sipping her tea, trying to hide any hint of blush on her face. "I have to be honest for now. I'm a little curious where her current path will lead her..."

...

...

One by one the students descended from the air, having been thrown from the cliffside via catapult launchers. A few of them were surprised, several of them were worried, but all of them were prepared for the landing.

Whether or not they actually were.

Half the crew found themselves using unconventional means of landing. When it came to someone like Weiss, she manipulated the power of her glyphs into safe landing pads, hopping elegantly from one spot to the next until she came to the ground itself. Ren used a more direct approach as he came upon one of the large trees, using the blades on his guns to grip the along the edge of the tree as he descended to the ground.

Others of the strength variety, like Yang, made use of their personal strengths and weapons with unison. With one burst after another, she blasted each of her gauntlets sending her forward, waiting and anticipating until she came upon a relatively safe landing zone. When she finally did after another minute, it was nothing more than crashing through the trees themselves, using several branches like Weiss had with her glyphs to steady herself, slowing down with each leap she took until she finally came upon the earth before her.

Then there were the people who just took it as they came. People like Nora, who weren't bothered with much of the laws of physics, or the ideas of pain for that matter. They simply went with the flow like several others, taking on the action as it came to them, specifically the ground itself. With nothing short of a chuckle to herself, she made use of her favorite hammer as she slammed it once upon the ground, the impact shooting her above the trees briefly before coming down again to repeat the process, this time with the blow allowing her to stop in place.

Unfortunately, then there were the cases of other students, or student as it came down to. Jaune Arc, of the Arc family, who had little to no battle experience, and no means to actually slow himself down that came to mind.

That's when it paid to have allies, and more importantly friends. Pyrrha, who came to her landing with ease, she managed to see the flailing Jaune as he came to a landing and no means to stop himself. With a smile, Pyrrha gripped her spear at the ready, taking a moment to prepare herself and work out the trajectory of her aim, making sure her aim actually came into contact with Jaune, and not actually INTO Jaune in the process. In just a few seconds, with a silent breath to steady her aim, she threw it straight at him, losing him amongst the various trees that stretched before her.

"..."

"..."

"...Thank you!" Jaune's shouting could be heard from the distance.

With the hassle taken care of, she jumped down the rest of the tree as she looked around. Based on her throw and the distance between her and her mark, Jaune was definitely several miles away North, wasting no time making her way to her there. While she wouldn't have to worry too much about the Grimm, she still had to be careful. Between her and Jaune, all she had left to protect herself was her shield. A single Grimm would be a cakewalk, two Grimm no problem. But taking on entire groups of them at the same time in a place where she couldn't make use of her semblance would be suicide.

So while it might decrease her chances of teaming up with Jaune, someone she would've enjoyed teaming up with, she definitely had to find help along the way. No one was crying bloody murder around here, and there weren't any desperate cries for help, so everyone should be able to hold their own against the Grimm. So either she had to find one of them, or she had to wait until somebody came across her-

"Huh?"

 _*CRASH!*_

The entire world shook like a hurricane for the next three seconds. The only thing Pyrrha saw coming towards her before the white flash were a trail of white rose petals before she took what felt a dumbbell to the face. Luckily, years of experience, training, working out, and studying allowed her to compose herself within a few short seconds, shaking off the dizzy spell as she looked around her.

"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry!" A small white-hooded girl apologized, still trying to get the dizzy out of her head.

Oh, it's that Ruby girl.

She would make a good partner, she supposed. Her ability to catch her off guard alone already proved that, and if she could move as fast as she did now then finding Jaune would only take a few minutes at most. And besides that, she probably would make a relatively good partner to have on a team. She seemed like a really nice person, and while the high amounts of energy would probably take getting used to, it'd be nice to have someone with so much optimism on the team.

"That was completely stupid of me, honest. I mean I just landed, I was already in distress, and-"

"It's quite alright." Pyrrha replied, making her way to the still disoriented girl. " Are you okay?" She asked offering a hand. It took Ruby several more seconds for her vision to clear, but once it became focused she could only gasp at who she ran into, gazing into their eyes.

It was both, someone she never expected, at least this early, and someone she was still overjoyed to see. She was, after all, one of her biggest fans.

"Hey Pyrrha!" Ruby chirped, jumping to her feet with excitement. For a short while, Ruby just looked between her and her heads for a few seconds, excitement building within her mind as a realization slowly dawned on her. "... Hey wait. We just saw each other in the eyes... soooooo does that meeeean...?" She had to admit, it was a bit cute seeing Ruby's innocence at the moment.

"Hmhm, yes, I guess we're team mates now." She replied.

"Huuuuh! This... is..." Pyrrha just watched, preparing herself for whatever large bout of excitement the young teen was going to unleash. She was used to this kind of publicity ever since she ever since her fame continued to skyrocket. When it came to the public, it was people here and there crowding her, always wanting to just be in her presence or have her assistance in some way.

It annoyed her, but it's not like she entirely minded. At first, it was really annoying with people crowding her to no end over the first year, asking for autographs and asking her even for the most simple of suggestions, like how to fight a common Grimm no matter how many times she repeated it. Over time she got used to it, eventually realizing that the only way to get through it all was to just play along until people left her alone, giving into their grievances and wishes.

It's not like she would've ignored them anyway. She was a nice and considerate person, and was still happy at the mere thought of assisting someone in some way. Perhaps that's what made it all the more ironic, liking to help anyone regardless of the request. Didn't mean it couldn't be slightly annoying though.

"Awful!" See? Just like the rest of them, her first and biggest reaction was to say-

Wait what?

Her confusion wasn't noticed by the young panicking Ruby, frantically rubbing her head worriedly as she tried to think of a plan. "Oh noooo, that means just two more spots are left open!" She whined. Whether she noticed Pyrrha's surprised reaction or not didn't seem to matter as she already gave her an apologetic look. "I-I'm sorry, I don't mean to look unsurprised or anything, it's just... well..."

"You wanted to team up with Blake, I assume?" She guessed correctly. It wasn't hard to tell seeing Ruby's minor attachment with Blake during the few minutes they were all together.

"Y-Yeah..." That was understandable. She herself wanted to partner up with Jaune, so this turnabout could actually work in both their favors.

"Well, I have a nice little proposal then." Pyrrha announced, the hooded girl growing curious at the mention. "I would like some help finding Jaune to have him on the team too. So why don't we work together then? We can help each other find the person we want on a team, then we can complete the challenges and move on as one large team in the end."

"Huh! Really?" This sounded too good to be true! For all Ruby knew, maybe it was? She did hit her head pretty hard to the point where it made her dizzy, so this wouldn't be the least bit surprising to her. "But... do you really want my help?" Ruby wondered scratching her head. "I mean, according to Weiss you're supposed to be some high and mighty elite student or something, aren't you? You wouldn't mind teaming up?"

She did have to admit it was rather sweet of Ruby to consider that. Nearly all the people she's known up to this point always just assumed it automatically and never really took her feelings or wishes into account before asking.

"Of course not," she insisted, "I think we'd make a good team. Besides, I honestly could use any help if we run into Grimm. I sorta lost my weapon along the way..." She added scratching her head, slightly embarrassed.

"Oh... well you won't have to worry about that with me here." She grinned, quickly revealing her Crescent Flame and literally firing it up. While it was a rather nice display of the craft and equipment, it did display one underlining and crucial piece of information that Ruby herself didn't seem to realize. "C'mon Pyrrha, let's go find our friends!" Ruby cheered, already taking off ahead of her.

"Ruby, wait!" She had to stop her. If Ruby was as reckless as she was now, she needed to stop her before it was too late.

...

...

"Ugh... ow..." Weiss mumbled as she pushed her way through the bushes and tickets that covered the forest.

She knew a forest was going to be one of the more unpleasant areas of the world to find herself in, but this was just ridiculous. Within the last five minutes alone, she got her dress snagged at least twice, had a bug fallen on her head, nearly tripped over uprooted tree roots from the ground, and gotten her hair caught in something. And these weren't even the things she had to be truly worried about.

For her, like all the other students walking and exploring about, the true nightmare she had yet to run into were the Grimm. Grimm, the darkest of creatures this world had to offer, with no mind of their own nor desire other than to exterminate any and all living creatures on this planet. They were here since the beginning, since light and dark, and they always pushed everything in their way until that reality came to fruition.

Even with the arrival of dust, the people could only do so much. The Grimm were numerous, feasting on the fears of the people as much as the people themselves. Sadness, hate, disgust, every negative emotion is what drew the Grimm to them, giving them purpose in snuffing out that light this sorrow came from. Anyone from the healthy cries of simple children, to the desperate moans of the sick and elderly. There was no end to them.

That's what made Weiss' purpose within Beacon so important. She wasn't just a fellow symbol of hope like her dear sister was, she was an icon as a member of the Schnee Dust Corporation, and everything it stood for. She was meant to be a bringer of peace and hope, inspiring the masses against the coming dark and the evils of the world, and prove to everyone that the Schnee's family name was something worth respecting.

That's how she was raised to believe all this time, and she continued to follow that tradition to the bitter end. No matter the cost, no matter what sort of disgusting things she needed to push herself through, like this disgusting forest, she would see it through to the end. No twigs, no bushes, no bugs, and most of all no Grimm were going to keep her from achieving the level of respect her sister had. She would make her family name proud.

This, was for her.

"Ugh come on you stupid urg..." Came the noise of a young man.

No. It couldn't be. There's no way in life her luck was that bad, right?

"Come on agh..." The voice groaned.

It had to be a nightmare, or a hallucination at worst. Of course, that must be it! After all, when she lifted her head up to see, there was no way she was going to saw Jaune up above her.

That's when she saw Jaune up above her.

"Ugh... huh?" He finally noticed the heiress below him. "Eh heh... hi..." He waved, chuckling nervously. Typical, the heiress comes begging to join his team and he wasn't the least big presentable!

At least the way she found him was a little less cliche than she expected. Sure, he was stuck up in a tree like she would expect from someone with his... quality... but at least the reasoning behind it was more unexpected. Apparently, for whatever reason decided fate decided to, he was snagged by the hood of his hoodie, a large unique spear pinning him in place.

"...Bye." Weiss replied walking back the way she came.

"Huh- W-wait!" Jaune begged. "Aren't we on a team now?"

"I'll take my chances Jaune, thank you."

"Oh come on, you can't just leave me like this!" He whined.

"Look, Jaune," she groaned looking back, "it's nothing personal, but I'd prefer getting on a team with Pyrrha before the initiation ends, ok? I'm sure you'll be just fine up there anyway." She walked off again as she said this.

"Ah! W-Wait! I uhh..." He needed to think fast. He knew how much she wanted to be on Pyrrha's team, so he had to think of a way to convince her to not only join him and his manly team he would undoubtedly have, but get her to help him down all the same. "I uhh... I-I know where Pyrrha is!" Thank god. To his relief, and partial joy, she paused mid step before turning around.

She knew it was a trick, yet there wasn't any other way to go about it. If there was even the smallest of chances he of all people could possibly get to Pyrrha so Weiss could join her team and be the greatest team in the history of the world, then she had to take it! With nothing more than the thousands of voices in her mind telling her to turn the other way, she walked up to the tree once more. "Do you really know where Pyrrha is?"

Good! She was listening! Now he just needed to not botch this or he would probably find the spear stuck in somewhere more painful. "Y-Yeah, of course I do! Whose spear do you think this is?" That was a valid point, she had to admit. It wasn't much of a convincing argument in the long run, but if the spear really did belong to Pyrrha of all people, that meant she would be coming back for it!

Rolling her eyes in annoyance, she stuck her rapier within the ground itself as a white glyph grew from under her. Watching with curiosity, Jaune waited for nearly anything to happen before noticing a smaller white glyph appear from the tree itself where the spear was sticking out of. With nothing more than a few good wiggles, he found himself yelping as he fell to the ground face first, Weiss just watching as she stood back.

With his dignity and awesomeness on the line, he quickly jumped to his feet, hand at the side without seeming the least bit injured despite the pain jumping through his veins.

"Haha, not a scratch on me." He stated with pride.

"Whatever," Weiss huffed, shoving the spear into his hands, causing him to yelp slightly from the pain, "just point me the way to Pyrrha before I change my mind."

"Oh! Y-Yeah! Just follow me, and," he paused to flex a little, "feel free to stick by as closely as you want. I'll keep you safe, angel."

"Jaune-"

"S-Sorry." He didn't want to push his luck passed this point. With spear at the ready and a quick glance at his surroundings, he smiled. "Ah, this way!" He declared, leading the way.

"Are you sure about this?" This was Jaune she was trusting of all people. It was cruel enough that the first person she ran into was him. Now she was finding herself relying on his guidance of all things.

"Oh course, my princess."

"Don't call me princess."

"Sure thing, snow angel!"

"Or snow angel."

"Umm... sweetheart?"

"You're pushing it."

"Sorry."

At least he was confident enough to walk without tripping over himself. Who knows, maybe her luck would be turning up right about now? You can't have a bit of good luck without the bad after all. If everything worked as well as she had hoped, he would lead her right to Pyrrha within the next few minutes, before anyone else could possibly claim their spot on Pyrrha's team.

And he was confident in the direction he was going anyway. All it took was a bit of common sense and fortitude to lead them down the path before him. Judging by the angle of the spear and the direction it pointed out from, all he needed to do was follow in the same direction in order to find out wherever Pyrrha threw it from. Once he found her, Weiss would undoubtedly fall madly in love with someone of his charm and rugged good looks, and this was the best way to make a good first impression to the young heiress!

Unfortunately, the one factor he didn't account for was wind direction. Pyrrha was an indefinite master of arms and wits, which is why she managed to hit her mark without failure or doubt. However, it wasn't just simple timing and aim that she took into account, but the near-still breeze of the air around her followed by the distance and force she would need to land an exact, perfect hit.

It wasn't necessarily Jaune's fault that he didn't realize it either. The amount of timing and foresight anyone would've needed for such a throw would've gone over anyone's head, metaphorically speaking. And he had yet to realize how skilled an adept Huntress like Pyrrha truly was.

If he did realize that, he would've realized he was leading Weiss in the completely wrong direction.

...

...

"Blaaaaake? Jaaaaaune? Anybody!" Ruby shouted for the third time.

Normally she wouldn't condone such an action in such a Grimm-infested forest, but given the situation and how much danger they would've been in if they remained by themselves, Pyrrha decided to go along with it. The sooner they found more people, the sooner they would've found Jaune and Blake, or at least one of the two. And more importantly, the sooner they would be safe in larger numbers.

Then again, it probably wouldn't have mattered since Ruby had a tendency to zip from place to place every several seconds as they searched.

As for Ruby, there was nothing short of neverending nightmares running through her head. Not particularly about herself or anything, they were of her beloved sister, Blake. Who knows what possible scenario the cat girl herself could be in at this moment?! She could've been eaten by Grimm, died upon impact just by colliding with the ground, no thanks to the evil headmaster named Ozpin, or, worst of all, found herself an entirely new sister and forgotten all about Ruby!

Ok she knew that last part was stretching it a little. After all, Blake did recognize Ruby despite her hood when they first met, and she remembered all about the books and stories she used to read to Ruby when they were kids. They were some of the best times the two ever had with each other, at least until Blake left her. It was those memories of her that she cherished the most, and what usually got her through any sad or hard times in her life after her tenth birthday.

Just remembering the simpler times when they were kids, all the fun they used to have, that always brightened Ruby's mood.

"Ruby!" Pyrrha tried to call out, taking a moment to catch her breath. It was amazing Ruby herself had so much energy given the near two miles they covered in the last five minutes, not to mention Ruby's brief zips between here and there. "You should slow down for a minute, try to not to shout so much."

"But we have to find Blake and Jaune before it's too late, right?" Ruby reminded. "I don't want to lose the chance to partner with Blake, and I'm sure you don't want to lose a chance to team up with Jaune, right?" She wasn't wrong in her line of reasoning, she just didn't know exactly why Pyrrha wanted to find Jaune so badly.

"Of course I do, Ruby." Pyrrha replied with a nod. "But you don't want to attract any unwanted attention, right?"

Like before, the nerves just got to her. Was she referring to the obvious, or was she secretly referring to something along the lines of Ozpin or someone? It was going to be awhile before she took peoples words for what they were, knowing she had awhile before anyone would stop being suspicious of her. Anything they said could be hinting towards one idea while meaning something else to Ruby herself.

And even if it didn't, it didn't mean Ruby was wrong either. Pyrrha could've been talking about something Ruby was fully aware of, yet at the same time she needed to be careful about everything around her within Beacon and this forest. People really were watching her move around this school just like everyone else. People were going to make sure she was following the rules just like everyone else. And people would be keeping tabs on her for anything she did that was against the rules.

Just like everyone else.

Whether she took it at face value or for what it felt like to her, Ruby needed to take every word into account. One slip up could see her getting expelled. A worse slip-up could see her ending up behind bars for the rest of her natural life. And having little to no social skills for the outside world save for her friends and close family, every action Ruby took would be jotted down and recorded for the years to come.

"Yeah... I guess you're right..." Ruby frowned. Pyrrha tried giving her somewhat of an easing smile. She knew Ruby was young around here and the pressure was already getting to her.

"It'll be alright Ruby, honest." She said walking over. "But listen, you need to ease up with the scythe thing."

"Crescent Flame!" Ruby reminded.

"I'm sorry, 'Crescent Flame'." She corrected. "But seriously, I don't think you should be using that thing around here."

"Why's th-"

 _*rumble*_

"Huh?" Both girls looked around as the ground slowly started to rumble.

"Hey, do you feel some-"

 _*bam*_

Pyrrha never got the chance to even finish that sentence. By the time she looked back to the white hooded girl again, Ruby found herself being dragged away by a large stampeding Grimm, the beast itself moving too fast for Pyrrha to get a good glimpse of what it was other than a black large blue. She would've been slightly more worried about Ruby's safety at that moment, but she could've sworn the creature itself almost looked like it was being ridden by someone.

"-thing?"

Things only took a turn for the worse as she noticed several glowing red eyes appearing from the shadows, one after the other. She was about to have a fight on her own hands.

...

"Whoooooooa!" Ruby squealed, hanging onto the outward bones on the left of the rampaging Ursa. She wasn't a stranger to Ursa's, having lived with Salem for so long, but couldn't help find her situation more than strange.

Normally if an Ursa was to attack, they wouldn't charge headfirst like this and keep on charging. At most, they would've charged and pinned their targets to the ground before savagely assaulting them with all their strength. This one, for whatever reason, didn't seem too preoccupied on Ruby herself. In fact, it seemed less concerned about Ruby and more terrified at whatever it was running from.

What would be so terrifying around here that a rampaging Ursa would rather run from it than devour the flesh of the living?

"Whooohooooooo!" A familiar cheer yelled. Lifting her head out of the hood, it was then that Ruby saw the face of the mysterious horror.

It was nothing more than a young girl, probably the same age as the other students Ruby's come across. Her mood, behavior, and excitement made her feel like someone closer to Ruby's age though. She's never seen anyone else this hyper or piped up to do things, enjoying the ride for what it was even when it was on the back of a rampaging Ursa. Come to think of it, looking closer, the girl appeared to be steering the Ursa of all things.

Admittedly, it was weird. At the same time, it was amazing. She could recall a couple times she herself rode on the back of the Grimm for the last several years, usually through the halls of Salem's palace and rarely outside. Not once was it ever as fast as this, much less with an Ursa.

"Helloooo?" Ruby shouted, trying to grab the attention of the orange-haired rider. Only when the rider turned her head in the direction of the caller did Ruby recognize her.

It was that strange hyper girl that constantly followed Ren around.

"Hey Ruby!" She greeted, pulling Ruby up and plating her right behind her. "Welcome to the S.S. Nora!"

...

...

...

 ** _A/N: We're counting down folks! We're just a handful of episodes away before the teams are comprised! Will Ruby get to Blake in time? Will Weiss take up the remaining spot? Does Nora know how to steer this thing!?_**

 ** _FIND OUT NEXT TIME, ON RWBY-...dang it, i need like 2 words than a letter X/...oh well. RWBY BALL Z!_**

 ** _...god that announcer had an awesome voice X)_**


	27. Vol 1 Ep 6: The Emerald Forest

**_A/N: 6.5k words Pre A/N's- Hey folks! Hope you're all excited for this double-posting day :D! I didn't think I'd actually accomplish this myself (I probably wouldn't have since I normally only write till 7 anyway), but I was just so excited for the future episodes I couldn't wait ^^._**

 ** _Not much to say here, but let me know how you guys think I did with some of the action scenes. Ruby is a fast paced action-scene-filled anime, and trying to capture that moment with words is rather hard to do... actually capturing any action scenes in a fanfic is rather difficult, so hopefully that came out just fine :/._**

 ** _And apologies for obvious reasons, biggest being if this seems a tad rushed. I've been writing nearly 5 hours straight, and the fact I'm posting this alongside the last episode I posted in the same day, I think it goes without saying XP_**

 ** _So let's kickback, relax, and watch some Rwby ^^!_**

 ** _ENJOY!_**

 ** _..._**

 ** _..._**

 ** _..._**

 ** _~This will be the day we've waited for~_**

 _Cinder and Salem are seen standing on a balcony on the side of the latter's home looking out in the distance to where Vale would be. As they look up to a Nevermore flying overhead, the camera pans up as well, showing an orange sky that slowly turns blue._

 ** _~This will be the day we open up the door~_**

 _Returning back down from its view of the sky, we see Ruby opening the door to Beacon's main hall, Wolfie peaking out behind her, Blake standing next to her, oblivious to the Grimm's presence._

 ** _~I don't wanna hear your absolution;~_**

 _The Camera 'flies' through the hallways until it settles on Ozpin going through illegible notes on his scroll next to a photo of young miss Fall._

 ** _~Hope you're ready for a revolution~_**

 _Outside his window, dozens of students can be seen steping together and looking up in awe as the screen is overtaken by a storm of white petals_

 ** _~Welcome to a world of new solutions~_**

 _One of the petals remain before a black background and is revealed to be Ruby as she pulls out Crescent Flame and starts twirling her Scythe around, leaving a burning crimson Halo above herself._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of bloody evolution~_**

 _The red halo turns into Wolfie's red Iris as the camera zooms out revealing the pool of blood beneath the Grimm. before he dissolves into a shadow and to the side._

 ** _~In time, your heart will open minds~_**

 _The shadow flows beneath Ruby cloak who is standing with her team, a conflicted expression on her face. Soon though it is replaced with a look of determination as the Camera pans once more._

 ** _~A story will be told~_**

 _When the camera settles on Ruby's viewpoint we see Amber kneeling before Cinder, before the camera zooms back and her surroundings turn into the vault beneath Beacon._

 ** _~And victory is in a simple soul~_**

"...Really? Nothing?" Glynda asked. The only response she got from Ozpin was the same thing for the last five minutes.

He replayed the footage to the point where Ruby was falling from the sky. Thanks to an annoying bird she happened to come across, she was taken by surprise and unable to act until after she pried the bird from her face. She didn't even get time to rejoice her safety as the next thing she saw was the ground coming at her faster with each passing second than her weapon could've responded. She did the only thing that could save her at that time, or at least mitigated her waste of Aura.

She summoned Wolfie.

From the grounds below, following along her trail, the recording kept track as Ruby eventually collided into the wolf itself, Wolfie keeping her safe from harm. And, instead of simply continuing to keep the wolf out for the rest of her journey, she dismissed it back into her shadow before continuing on foot.

And just like every time he came to the end of the scene, he just repeated it from the very beginning.

"Ozpin!" Glynda yelled to no avail. "If you're not going to say something then fine, but I'm not going to stand here and allow her to harm my other students-!"

"Calm yourself, Glynda." It was a miracle. She finally got some actual words out of him after long last! "She doesn't intend to harm any of the other students."

"You keep having faith in her but you never tell me why!" Glynda argued. "Give me one good reason right now to assume she isn't a threat?"

"Because she doesn't want anyone else to know about the Grimm." He said showing her the after footage. It was a simple scene of Ruby using her semblance for a short while to explore the surrounding forest, at least a good several seconds worth of it. That all came to an end though when she accidentally crashed into Pyrrha. From that point forward, there wasn't any other footage of Ruby using the large wolf-like Grimm. "If she had intended to harm any of the students, she would've done so the second her guard was down. Not to mention the bullies she was confronting yesterday."

"That doesn't excuse her reason for being here." She pointed out.

"True, but it should at least give some peace of mind on her attentions. She's only here for the maiden as far as we're aware of, which means she shouldn't pose a problem for the other students of the academy."

"And if you're wrong?" She waited for a response, watching as the sun's light reflected off his glasses as he adjusted them.

"Then I'll deal with her myself."

...

...

"Ha!" Pyrrha screamed at the top of her lungs as she based another Ursa's head to the ground, using nothing more than her lone shield.

This was turning out to be quite the day, to say the least, and judging how the events were going at this rate, it was going to be her last.

Not ten minutes after she made her landing, she ended up saving Jaune from possibly falling to his death, met an overactive white-hooded girl who happens to be more of a fan of her cereal than her herself, covered a good two miles worth of forest searching for either Jaune or Blake with her, watched as Ruby got swept away from her in mere seconds, and was now battling several of the surrounding Grimm around her.

Fortunately, they were Ursas. From her advanced studies and intel, she just needed to out maneuver them to stay ahead of this game. They relied mostly on their size and large muscles, making them slow and easier to predict their attacks. And thanks to Pyrrha's constant training, outpacing them would be a cinche.

The bad news was that she was without any form of weapon. Ursas were large and sturdy creatures. Even if she somehow managed to fashion out a wooden spear with the tree branches using her shield, the most she could hole for was targeting their eyes. No amount of flimsy carvings would be enough to penetrate their rock-hard hide, not to mention the actual bones sticking out of them.

It was slowly becoming less of a concern about dodging them and more of a concern about actually killing them before they either overwhelmed her, or backed her into a corner. All these things she had to constantly think about, dodging under another Ursa's legs as one tried to tackle her, jumping over the following one that tried to strike her soon after, and only managing to kill the first of the three by plunging her shield directly into the back of the neck of the third one, while considering her options.

The shield was only going to hold her out for so long, provided she didn't try to use it as a weapon from this point, and it was only going to take so many direct hits, parried or not, before it either shattered or became too dull to fight. She had plenty of stamina to borrow even after all the ground and running she did with Ruby, but that was only going to take her so far until it faltered.

She suddenly dodged to the left as another Ursa charged from behind her, slicing what she could with the shield into it's thick skin. Just as she feared, she barely made a scratch into it's rough iron hide while wearing down her shield only more as it dulled the edges. That was when she noticed the spine of the one she killed earlier sticking out.

Dodging the swipe of the first one again, kicking the second one off it's feet as it tried to slam itself upon her, she ran a good dozen yards before turning her back to the dead Ursa. All she had to do was remain patient and calm as the second one growled fiercely at her, enraged over her sudden attack that knocked it off it's feet. With one mighty roar, the Ursa charged head first into Pyrrha, charging right down the middle to swipe from any angle Pyrrha tried to dodge to, intending to mutilate the pathetic human.

It would never get the chance.

Three seconds before it's attack, those few moments she had as the beast lunged for her, she ducked under it with a slide. It never had time to react as it gorged itself upon the thick spiny backside of it's fallen comrade, impaling itself on several spear-like bones that tore through it. Usually using such thick spears would do nothing more than cut someone at most, the tips too dull to be of any effective use. Using the Ursa's own weight against it, slamming itself against the back of the previous one, made it nothing more than mincemeat for the second victim.

Pyrrha finally took the moment to catch her breath at this point. Now she only had to kill the last of the Ursas she had to deal with. She could be able to keep up with it for the most part, the problem was with the second Ursa propped up against the first in such a way, it wasn't going to impale it's whole body if it lunged at it, and that's provided it didn't learn from the first one.

"Calm your breath... steady your stance..." She whispered to herself. From the looks of it, she was going to have to use her own physical strength against this one. She didn't have Ursa spines to rely on, and her shield was too dull from the last one she cut with it. The only thing she could rely on now was wearing it down with her own strength, strike blow after blow until she wore it down enough for her to kill it.

Standing before her, towering twice in height on it's hind legs, it gazed into Pyrrha's readied eyes, screaming with endless fury.

 ** _*GAAAOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUU-!*_**

 _*Whooosh*_

Out of nowhere, the beast let out a short cry of pain, collapsing before the confused warrior as she watched. She thought it was going to charge her or try to maim her in some way, nothing like this. That was when she saw the supposed face of her sudden savior.

"Thanks Blake." She said with a smile. With a small smile, the Faunus-in-disguise just nodded to her as she sheathed her katana.

"No problem." Her smile was short lived as she looked around themselves. "By the way, did you happen to notice a young girl around here, wearing a white hooded cloak?"

"Red hair, silver eyes, and easily excitable?" Pyrrha added with a knowing grin.

"Bingo."

"Yeah, she was...eh..." Blake watched as Pyrrha scratched her chin, looking into the forest.

"What's wrong?" If something happened to Ruby, she really wanted to know. She was positive she wasn't dead, having followed the sound of the shouting up to this point, but she didn't know what to make of Pyrrha's expression. She wasn't worried or sad, which relieved Blake in the possibility that Ruby was alive, only confused.

"She... might've been abducted by a Grimm... I think."

That explained so much and yet so little.

"She was what?"

...

...

"Whooooooooa!" Ruby yelled again as the mighty Ursa leaped over a fallen tree, continuing it's charge.

"Yeeeeeehaw cowboy!" Nora cheered, steering the Ursa when needed.

If Ruby was to hear someone else besides her Grandma could control Grimm, she would never believe it. Grimm were creatures of darkness, that much she learned from her granny. Even with all the control she had and the power in her fingertips, even Salem couldn't control every Grimm within this world, not until she came into direct contact with any of them. Whether she was human, possibly some Grimm Hybrid, or just a really gifted individual, Ruby was in awe at he numerous things only Salem herself could do.

Now she was wondering if that gift either extended to anyone else within the world, or if Nora was somehow secretly Salem's daughter or granddaughter or something. Here she was, on the back of a giant Ursa she got her cape snagged by from the sides of it's bones, being driven by a hyperactive orange-haired girl named Nora Valkyrie. She doesn't know if Nora actually scared the Grimm enough to get it to obey her, if she had some special gift that gave her control over the terrified Grimm, all she knew was that Nora was directing which way this Grimm went, and wasn't about to take no for an answer.

"Noraaa!" Ruby screamed, holding on behind her as they rode. "Norrrraaaaaa!"

"Yeah?" Nora looked back curiously. The sound of the constant and loud ruffling of forest around them was drowning out any and all sound around them. It was like being on a motorcycle it was so loud.

"Why are you riding a Grimm?"

"What about my hip?"

"No, you're riding a Grimm!" Ruby repeated.

"Oh, the Grimm? It's fast traveling of course!" She replied, smiling down as the Ursa ran. "It beats walking all the way, that's for sure!" It was a good point, just not a good explanation.

"How are you controlling it though?"

"Oh that?" She grinned pulling out her favorite mallet. "I use this baby!" As if to demonstrate, she whacked one of the surrounding trees they neared, setting off a large display of electricity upon impact. Seeing it, the Ursa began to freak, quickly bolting right and taking off with twice as much speed for a few seconds. "I just whack it when I want to turn some way. It's simple!"

That was the farthest thing from simple to Ruby! Of all things why on Remnant would she possibly use a Ursa of all things!? It would've made much better sense to fly upon a giant bird or something!

"So do you know where we're going?"

"Whaaat?" Nora asked, Ruby's voice drowning out again.

"Do you know where you're going I said!"

"Oh!... No not really." She didn't care about Ruby's dropped jaw to that.

"WHAT!?"

"Ozpin said the temple was at the end of the forest or something, right?"

"The northern end!"

"Yeah, so which way's North?"

"Huh? It's... uhh..."

Aww shoot!

She hadn't really thought of that since meeting Pyrrha. For the most part she was following along with Pyrrha in order to find Blake and Jaune, the two teaming up together to find someone they wanted on their team. She only now realized that in doing so, not only did she lose which direction she was shot from, provided they were even shot North to begin with, she also didn't know which direction they were going up to this point.

That wasn't even including the bit where Ruby was suddenly snagged by the frightened Ursa, inadvertently hitching a ride with Nora to who knows what direction.

"Aww... I don't really know..." She replied.

"Well don't let it get your panties in a bunch!" Nora said with authority, shooting her a thumbs up. "That's what this baby is for! Just give it some time, and we'll find the northern end and the temple in no time!" That was fair enough. While it wasn't practical it did at least leave them time and energy to spare once they got to the temple and found whatever artifacts they required.

Then again, this was coming from the girl who thought it was a good idea to ride a rampaging Ursa across the woods filled with Grimm, so anything was possible at this point.

"Are you at least sure this is safe?" She asked slightly worry.

"Of course I'm sure! They don't call me 'Navigator Nora' for nothing!" She announced with pride. "If there's an adventure, Nora will find a way! I know all five directions without even needing a compass!"

"Nora... there's only four directions on a compass." Ruby replied, not counting sub-directions like northeast or northwest. Her worries only heightened at the sight of Nora's face dwindling to confusion.

"...There are?"

Well at least she had a good life.

...

...

"Hmm." Ren maintained focus as he took on the brunt of the snake's attack.

Within his own hands was one of the largest snakes he's ever come across, one of the longest Grimm too. For the last several minutes he found himself facing off against the elusive creature, dodging blow after blow as he countered with every hit. It would've been finished by now if it was just the snake he had to deal with, but sadly someone in the universe decided one snake wasn't enough for him to fight.

So they gave it a second head on the end where his tail would be, donning the opposite colors of the black-scaled snake as it was covered in white.

It was when his weapons were forced from his hands, when the white half bashed him away, that he found himself relying solely on his aura. The human body's last line of defense, the one thing that separated them from the Grimm that hunted humanity down. Their very souls.

With pure concentration and focus, he withstood the brunt of the attack with his bare palms, holding the snake back as it attempted to devour him. The snake was strong, and if it attacked him with a wider range of force, it would've undoubtedly succeeded. But these two sword-like fangs, the very tip of where they attempted to strike him, was all he needed. With enough focus, his aura manifested within his palms, absorbing the attack itself while keeping his body in perfect condition.

Then, with only his brute force, he ripped the right fang out of the black snake's mouth, dodging to the side of it before impaling it straight in the eye. With one sudden burst of aura, one large thrust directed straight into the center of the fang, he struck the deadly fang, the aura flowing through the fang itself as it traveled through the snake's head. And with one large burst, his head exploded, leaving nothing more than a steaming husk of where his head used to be.

One snake down, one more to go.

Facing the monstrous creature, he weighed his options as he waited for the right moment. All he would need is for the beast to strike first for him to counter, not planning on wasting the last of his aura if it wasn't necessary.

"Here's your HERO!" Yang shouted as she suddenly appeared from behind the snake, blasting herself into the air before delivering a single punch to the white half's skull. Mixing the force of her attack and the shotgun gauntlets around her wrists, the snake's other head exploded in the same manner, leaving nothing more than for the blonde girl herself to leap to the ground before him in triumph. "That outta be worth some points, right?" She asked cheekily.

Unbelievable. Whether or not her intention was to help Ren along the way, her sole reasoning behind killing the snake was just to improve her score, not that he was complaining.

"Thanks for the assist." He thanked offering a hand.

"No probs, I was just passing by when I saw it." Yang returned with a handshake. "Say have you seen that Ruby girl around here?"

"The girl with the hood you mean?" Ren asked for clarification. "Only when we were shot into the sky. I haven't seen anyone since landing. Why do you ask?"

"Honestly?... Meh, I don't know." Yang mumbled scratching her head.

She couldn't understand it. Why was she so bothered and obsessed with the idea of needing to protect Ruby? Was it because of how much she reminded her of her stepmother? She barely remembers what Summer looked like, save for images of her around the house, and there was little to nothing of the younger sibling she used to have, both lost in the same night.

Was it because she had the same name?

That must be it.

They did have the same first name after all, but she knew it was better than to actually assume that. Her dad took several years after he lost Ruby and Summer to recover, being nothing short of an emotional wreck. He never tried to show it in front of Yang obviously, but whether he did or not was irrelevant. Every time she caught a glimpse of his eyes growing up, Yang could see the pain and sadness behind it. And the last thing he needed, what either of them needed, was to think Summer or Ruby could ever come back.

Which is why it only infuriated her more every time she thought about the young girl.

"Maybe it's just a big sister sense or something." Yang shrugged as the two walked along to the path. "Maybe some part of me just feels protective of someone way younger."

"You're an older sibling?" He inquired.

"Ex, older sibling. I lost my little sis years ago before I could even remember. Mom too."

"Oh... I see... my condolences."

Yang could only wave off the apology with a casual smile. "Ah don't worry about it. It was a long time ago. I'm just naturally protective of anyone younger than me out of instinct.. I think..." Maybe it was instinct, maybe it was a big sister sense. Either way, she refused to leave anyone younger than her be in any form of danger, and with Ruby being the only fifteen-year-old at this academy, it was a given. "Anyway, what about you?"

"Oh, me? I lost my parents as a child too, along with-"

"No I meant are you looking for someone." She clarified.

"Oh..." He muttered, feeling somewhat awkward. "Well if it can be helped, I'm trying to find Nora. Nora Valkyrie."

"Oh, that hyper girl with the hammer?" She smirked. "I heard you two chatting back and forth in the lunchroom. A couple of lovebirds, ain't cha?" His blush was all she needed chuckle to herself.

"W-Well, I wouldn't know about lovebirds... I-It's complicated, really. We've just been friends since childhood." He said, pausing every now and then to recheck their path.

"Well I still think it's sweet!" She complimented, giving him a firm, somewhat harsh, pat on the back.

"Uh... t-thanks." If it wasn't for the fact he was trying to conserve his energy in case they came across any more Grimm, he would've snuck himself out of there with his invisibility. She wasn't really unbearable or anything, he just couldn't help but find some of the questions either too close to home or embarrassing. Least she was easier to keep under control than Nora was, excitement wise at least.

And neither of them had yet to realize they looked each other in the eyes several minutes ago...

...

...

"Let's see... no..."

"Jaune..." Weiss mumbled as he continued to lead.

"I think it's over... no, not that way either..." He mumbled, continuing to explore.

"Jaune..."

"Maybe it's right over-!... Darn it, not there either..."

"Jaune!" Weiss finally shouted.

"What?"

"We've been going in circles!" She said showing him to the nearby tree.

At first, things seemed fine. Weiss was all over him, wanting to know every single thing about him, and wishing she could marry him some day in the future. In reality, he wouldn't stop explaining himself or about his life as he lead the way through the woods.

That was the part that was tolerable.

The troubling part was when it came to the last five minutes. It must've been twenty minutes after the two met up that Weiss found herself still exploring with Jaune. She didn't have much of a choice since Jaune knew where Pyrrha was or at least assumed to at first. He followed the line from where the spear was thrown from, and it actually looked like he knew what he was doing! That was until he came across a few fallen trees, several of them seeming to have been bashed to the ground intentionally with some blunt object, and found himself where he was now.

He knew he was lost, and was unaware that Weiss knew too, but he refused to let that keep him down. He wanted to prove to Weiss, prove to everyone that him being here wasn't a mistake, or at least not as big as it appeared to be, so he refused to show any sign of distress or concern even after he realized he was lost. He thought things were going to go just fine with this until Weiss revealed the tree near her.

Along the edges of it, he saw several cuts precise cuts along the edge, one on top of the other from side to side. He didn't realize that up till now Weiss has been marking the same tree with the exact same cuts, marking their location and proving to him they were officially lost. Whether he took a minute to go to one location or just several seconds, he ended up at this exact same tree over and over again.

For the 9th time by the looks of the tree.

"We're officially lost." Honestly, it was her fault for listening to him. That's the only logical reasoning that would explain why she ever decided to follow him in the first place.

"We're not lost," he said trying to sound confident, "we're just... um... on a detour..."

"A detour to where, exactly?" She crossed her arms raising a brow.

"A detour to... umm..." Who was he kidding at this point. "Ok, fine, we're lost."

"That's what I thought. Later." She didn't even pay him any second mind as she turned around to walk away.

"Whoa w-wait a minute! Where are you going?"

"I'm going to finish this initiation and pray I end up with at least the third lowest score in this school!" Weiss yelled.

Whether it was right of her to take her anger out on Jaune was hard to tell for now. The minute anyone in her Schnee family found out she ended up with one of the lowest scores from a mere initiation evaluation, her reputation as a Schnee was finished! She'd never be able to look her sister in the eye, her father would disown her, and her mother would probably feign giving birth to her!

Ok out of the three, that last one was possibly a small stretch. She just had to much to care about at this point related to her family name! And she couldn't just say it was the fault of some simple guy she followed. Aside from the poor lack of judgement skill that would besmirch her, the media and masses of people would shun her for thinking of blaming someone else for her folly.

She would be forced to accept responsibility for her actions, no matter how unfair they seemed.

"W-Wait!" Jaune yelled, running after her. "Shouldn't we stick together?"

"Stick together?!" Weiss scoffed. "All I've been doing since we started was 'sticking together' and looked where that got me! I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere, with someone who doesn't even know how to use their own semblance of all things, and all the fault is going to come back to me just because I decided to trust you!"

"What? Well excuse me, princess, for just trying to help!" Out of all things, Jaune never thought he'd find himself on the giving end between him and Weiss.

And it wasn't even a lover's quarrel!

"Trying to help?" There wasn't one part of that sentence Weiss could believe. "All you've been since I met you was trying to show off in front of me! You've been lax, lazy, inconsiderate of personal space for who knows how many times now. Why did you even want to be a Hunter in the first place!?"

"You think I wanted any of this?" Jaune retorted, looking her in the eyes now. "You don't think I know what a screw up I am? Well guess what? You're right about me!" Ok, normally when two people are arguing the other doesn't surprisingly admit their fault. "You think I want to be here? Well guess what princess- I don't! I'm not a skilled Hunter or Huntress like you or Pyrrha, my weapon sucks in comparison to everyone else's, it's a family heirloom for pete sake! I don't want anything to do with any of this!"

"Then why in god's name are you even here?"

"Because of my family!" That was... among the last of things she expected to hear. "And that's something you should know all about, snow angel." With a huff, he shoved the spear into Weiss' arms before marching off in the other direction.

She was so caught up in his words that she didn't even realize he gave her the spear back until he was several yards away. "Wha- Hey! Where are you going?"

"I'm going to find the temple and prove to everyone I'm not a screw up!" He declared.

"What? You moron, the temple's that way!" She stated, gesturing behind her.

"Then good! You should have no problem finding the right way! I'm going with my gut on this one.." He mumbled.

"Grrr! Fine! You want to go that way, be my guest!" She grumbled, marching the correct way out of the two.

He was so inconsiderate and such a snob that she couldn't believe it! Out of all the things he pulls out the family card on her in an argument?! Well tough nuggets to him! If he wanted to go into the forest full of deadly monsters, that was fine by her, he could shout it to the world for all she cared!

And you know what? She was perfectly fine with that!

Why should she care about that harmless idiot in the first place! All he's done since meeting her was try to be nice, try to show off his confidence at every opportunity, tried to make things better by helping her fine Pyrrha so she could have the teammate she's always dreamed of, tried his best to get them out of their predicament since they became lost, tried making a very relatable cause behind him being there, tried to show no fear over the several Grimm she had to deal with along the way, did what he could to help, and worst of all, insist that the two of them stick together to keep each other safe! What do you call a person like that?!

... Wait a minute...

"Ugh..." She couldn't believe she was doing this, rolling her eyes as she sighed. "Jaune, wait!" She called out, trying to catch up to him.

"Go away..." He muttered uncaringly.

"Jaune, come on, I'm sorry... " This was a nightmare. An absolute nightmare. Not the fact she was actually apologizing to him now and trying to make it up to him, that she could live with.

What terrified her was the fact SHE was now chasing HIM of all people.

...

...

"Our last pair has formed, sir." Glynda announced, looking over the data. All throughout the initiation, she's been doing everything she could to stay focused on one thing in order to ignore the obvious wolf in sheep's clothing that was Ruby

Metaphorically speaking.

Through the last half hour, they've been monitoring the students, keeping tabs on who's done what, how many points each student has than the other, and the progress each of the students have made in comparison to the rest. Curiously, much to her surprise, despite what an obvious threat Ruby was, she's scored the least amount of points out of all the students. The only points she managed to some, if they could even be counted for technical reasons, was her landing strategy and her semblance uses.

While she did display a high degree of aura, managing to work her semblance so much, she still seemed to lack any specific points. She was just a few dozen short of Jaune Arc himself, and even that's only because he killed at least two Grimm compared to the five Weiss has thus far. To be fair, a large portion of that comes from the fact she's been riding on the back of a large Ursa with Nora Valkyrie for nearly twenty full minutes, so missing any potential kills was understandable.

What concerned her though was whether or not this was legitimate, or if she was just pretending to be a low-quality student to lessen some degree of possible suspicion.

"Excellent." Ozpin replied drinking his tea. "So who do we have?" Looking over the device, Glynda read off the details as she watched each student walk their own path.

"At the present time, so far we have Nora Valkyrie and Ruby Fall. They've been riding the Ursa since they've met." She commented switching to the next. She never noticed the brief glance Ozpin gave Ruby. "Coming up second, we have Pyrrha Nikos and Blake Belladonna."

"She was the one Ruby seemed acquainted with, correct?" He sees much of what goes on throughout the academy with his security monitor, so it was no surprise he seemed aware of some relationship Ruby had with the Faunus.

"That is correct, sir." She confirmed.

"I wonder if we could use that somehow..." He muttered to him.

Taking off from there, Glynda continued. "Next we have Lei Ren, and Yang Xiaolong."

"Did you say Yang?"

"Yes sir, she's..." She looked over her statistics with more detail. "I believe she's the one you said was Ruby's sister, correct?"

"Half-sister to be all technical, but yes. Has she said or done anything to show she knows this, Ms. Goodwitch?"

"Not to my knowledge sir, no." She replied regretfully. Using Blake was something she was entirely sure of, but there was definitely a better chance of bringing Ruby around if they informed Yang about the present situation.

Which is why the next line of words were completely expected from him.

"Good, let's keep it that way for now." He instructed. "It's like I said before, our first priority is to make sure we can actually turn Ruby around from her life before things get too out of hand. Only then can we begin the healing portion."

"Healing portion, sir?"

"Re-introducing her real family to her." He stated. "On the off chance this isn't the same Ruby, then keeping her from achieving her goals is our first priority. Once that's settled, however, if she is Summer's daughter, then we can start revealing the truth of her existence to those related to her. Rushing it too quickly at once might overwhelm her if we force it, and the last thing we want is a broken Ruby over a tearful Ruby."

"I... I understand, sir." She wished she didn't. Like everything else he's said before now, she really wished she didn't understand. It would be so much easier to point out all the flaws of logic behind his words, yet no matter how deeply she reached it just made sense to her.

When Ruby found out the truth, there was going to be a lot of emotions flaring up. Confusion, sadness, possibly anger over everything within the given years. But even then, one's emotional state could usually recover, and she could reunite with her real family once and for all! But if they went too fast, Ruby would be in nothing short of a panic. There would be outrage, denial, so many issues with her that her mind might not be able to process with all the stress and build up to it. It might reach a point where it would be unfixable, no matter how many years they spent trying to repair it.

All they could do at this hour was take things slow and steady, and not jump in guns ablazing.

Glynda swiped the screen once more as she came upon the last two students. "And then we have Weiss Schnee and Jaune Arc." Like all the other things she's dealt with, she could only groan to herself as she examined them. From the looks of it, the two seemed to have patched up whatever argument they seemed to have, Jaune leading the way again with Pyrrha's spear in hand while Weiss followed from behind. "I don't care what the transcripts say, that Jaune fellow is not ready for this level of combat."

"For all we know, maybe Ruby isn't either." Ozpin commented. "All we know of her battling history is the fight she had on the night of the robbery, and even then the fight could've been staged for all we know."

"For all we do know, you mean." She wasn't about to let Ozpin think Ruby was innocent in all this. She had to convince him that Ruby was a threat for the world's sake. "No matter what her fighting style or prowess is, she's a threat to the other students and the area around them."

"Because of her fire, right?" This was actually one of the reasons Ozpin was glad that Ruby had yet to fight any Grimm.

Something the young girl herself had yet to realize, something only Pyrrha seemed aware of at the time, as that Ruby's primary weapon discharged large quantities of fire with each passing blow. And while the cloak around her might have the reasons behind why she herself isn't burned, that still made her scythe a very dangerous object to be handled. The forest was filled with students after all, nearly all of them unaware of the extent of Ruby's true power, and that's not counting her companion.

A scratch becomes a spark. A spark becomes a small flame. A small flame becomes a mad fire. And a mad fire is the last thing any of these students needed to deal with when in a forest filled with so many Grimm.

And with so many large and dangerous threats, Ruby fall would be the least of their worries. Especially while they had that giant creature flying around from time to time...

...Then again, Ruby does need those points...

...

...

...

 ** _A/N: Another episode written, another episode done. Hope that was fun guys ^^ Sorry for the shortness between the last 2 chapters (though then again writing 6.5k+ twice within a single day, i would ASSUME that's forgivable XP_**

 ** _Again, let me know how I did with the action around here guys, and don't worry- there will be plenty more action in the next chapter. The chapter itself should be pretty long, which I'm fine with! Why?_**

 ** _CAUSE WE'LL FINALLY SEE WHO'S ON WHO'S TEAM X)!_**

 ** _PS: to make up these short chapters, I'll write a fun little "grandma salem" snippet in the next chapter as a treat ^_^)_**


	28. V1Ep7: The Emerald Forest part 2 Salem

_**A/N: 6.3k Pre-A/N, and you know what so what XD Cripes guys i'm the only guy I know who's posted at least 6k on a daily basis, so I think you can handle this much, right?**_

 _ ***everyone unfollows***_

 _ **...you guys are dicks X*(...**_

 _ **Anyway, just something I'd want to bring up here, well two actually. One, yes, this is a shorter episode. Apparently I missed part of the emerald forest part 2, so I wrote that in so I could get that covered and over with. And I apologize if the writings sloppy, blah blah blah, insert reason for it related to 5-hour-energy here.**_

 _ **And that wasn't one of the two things XP. First thing to bring up- you guys don't need to worry about ships. While some people might want to see a ship, I'm keeping all relationships within this series professional and to the**_ ** _series. So if they don't show it in the show, it won't be in here. That might not sound too good to some, but in the long run that means people who don't want to see certain ships, like Weiss x Jaune, you won't have to worry about that._**

 ** _The other thing I'd like to point out... you guys are freaking evil XD! I mean jeeze, out of every chapter I posted, I think at least one out of the dozen reviews per chapter I get has a "I want ruby to stay evil" and yada yada yada. I wouldn't mind this and would usually ignore it, but cripes, EVERYONE WANTS THAT XD!_**

 ** _And that's when I gotta ask guys- is it really what you want? Or do you just not want to see Ruby being split up from her other family? Cause at this rate, I'm thinking it's the latter. And do I blame you? No! I even find some of the moments cute myself, so I can see where you're going with this :P As such, a good 2/3rds of the chapter is a good little tender moment between a 10 year old Ruby and "Granny Salem". And i promise you there will be more of those to come ^^_**

 ** _Oh and one more thing I forgot to mention- some people didn't realize, i don't blame them cause despite alert, it didn't show on the site itself for some reason, but I updated my story with TWO chapters yesterday :P so if you haven't read the last part, nows a good time to check it out ^^_**

 ** _Enjoy!_**

...

...

...

 ** _~This will be the day we've waited for~_**

 _Cinder and Salem are seen standing on a balcony on the side of the latter's home looking out in the distance to where Vale would be. As they look up to a Nevermore flying overhead, the camera pans up as well, showing an orange sky that slowly turns blue._

 ** _~This will be the day we open up the door~_**

 _Returning back down from its view of the sky, we see Ruby opening the door to Beacon's main hall, Wolfie peaking out behind her, Blake standing next to her, oblivious to the Grimm's presence._

 ** _~I don't wanna hear your absolution;~_**

 _The Camera 'flies' through the hallways until it settles on Ozpin going through illegible notes on his scroll next to a photo of young miss Fall._

 ** _~Hope you're ready for a revolution~_**

 _Outside his window, dozens of students can be seen steping together and looking up in awe as the screen is overtaken by a storm of white petals_

 ** _~Welcome to a world of new solutions~_**

 _One of the petals remain before a black background and is revealed to be Ruby as she pulls out Crescent Flame and starts twirling her Scythe around, leaving a burning crimson Halo above herself._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of bloody evolution~_**

 _The red halo turns into Wolfie's red Iris as the camera zooms out revealing the pool of blood beneath the Grimm. before he dissolves into a shadow and to the side._

 ** _~In time, your heart will open minds~_**

 _The shadow flows beneath Ruby cloak who is standing with her team, a conflicted expression on her face. Soon though it is replaced with a look of determination as the Camera pans once more._

 ** _~A story will be told~_**

 _When the camera settles on Ruby's viewpoint we see Amber kneeling before Cinder, before the camera zooms back and her surroundings turn into the vault beneath Beacon._

 ** _~And victory is in a simple soul~_**

"Think this is it?" Pyrrha asked as the two came upon the scene.

After several minutes of battling their way through the forest, fighting passed the dozens of Grimm along the way, she and Blake finally came upon what could only be the temple they were instructed to reach. It would've been easier to declare if this was actually the temple or not if it wasn't for the ruined scenery around it. Pillars and stone alone were in shambles, half of the circular wall was missing, and moss and flora grew amongst the dirtied stone squares that made up the majority of this place.

Still, it wasn't like there was anywhere else around here that would've fit the description of being a Temple, not that this one was close to that mark either. This was the only building the two explorers came upon after miles and miles of searching, the only ruins any of the fellow classmates ever came upon after the start of the trial. Now it was only a matter of finding the rest of the remaining classmates and returning to the cliffside.

"Must be." Blake said with a shrug, leaping from the small hill they were on.

The more the two examined the strange area, the more uncertain they became if this was the right place. It did look ancient and decrepit, pretty much a given for any age-old temple like this, but the so-called Relics they came upon were a little more than bizarre. They didn't look like some form of ancient tablets, they weren't piles upon piles of rich gold or goblets, they didn't have any delicate portraits or paintings from the modern era. They were chess pieces. Simple, plain, chess pieces. Half of which were in a rusted gold, followed by another half which were covered in black. The other direct difference between the two were the types of chess pieces they were. Of those remaining, half the chess pieces were Rooks while the other half were Knights.

"Chess pieces?" Pyrrha questioned, observing one of the black Rooks closely.

"Are we supposed to play some board game or something?" Blake asked examining another.

"Doubtful. There's only two sets of chess pieces remaining." It was just like Pyrrha said. Looking around, they were the last ones remaining out of the whole.

"I guess we weren't the only ones here then... Well... Guess we should pick one." She was actually a little worried about Ruby. Aside from not knowing how capable she was in a fight, having never seen her fighting someone unless for pretend when they were kids, she's never really shown any interest in being a Huntress. Sure, she's takes about being a super hero and stuff like from the cartoons, but that was fiction.

This was real life!

...

...

Meanwhile, several other students were having their dilemma, specifically Jaune and Weiss. They finally patched up whatever anger issues they were getting off their chest and resumed their search for the hidden temple in the woods. The good news is they finally came across what could possibly be the supposed Temple.

It was the entrance to a large cave, the opening surrounding it covered in cavemen-like drawings. All of the drawings depicted dozens of stick figures with bows and spears all attacking some sort of strange scorpion. That was ancient enough right? Up to this point, they were given no indication as to what the temple was going to look like, forcing everyone who had yet to find it to rely on pure instinct. Maybe this was the temple, maybe it was just a random cave. Standing out here was going to get them nowhere.

"Think this is it?" Jaune wondered.

"Only one way to find out." Weiss replied, watching as Jaune began making a torch with a thick nearby branch. Leading the way with torch in hand, Jaune led them through the dark tunnel. It only took five seconds to make up her mind. "I'm not sure this is it..."

"Huff, Weiss, I made the torch." He reminded. "Could you at least at least humor me for maybe five more feet- Ack!" With a yelp, Jaune came tumbling down over the loose stone, the torch going out with a sizzle in the puddle of water he dropped it in. And within an instant the cave was clouded in a blanket of darkness.

"...I counted four steps." She said with a slight tease. "Do you feel something?"

"Loss of dignity? Soul crushing regret? You can stop me at any time you know." He moaned.

"No, not that. It's like... I don't know, it's like... a presence..."

"Presence?" Even though she couldn't see it at the time, Jaune grinned. "Oh Weiss, if you want me to hold onto your arm that's ok."

"...You have five seconds to let go of what you're calling an arm..."

"Sorry."

...

"Hmm..." Pyrrha examined the relics carefully. Whatever they picked would determine the partnering and teams for the next four years. Whether that meant the pieces themselves were related, or simply a matter of score, was the only troubling issue. "Any suggestions which one to take?"

"I think I'll go with the rook." Blake said taking one of the black pieces. "If I know Ruby, she'll definitely go for the one that looks like a castle."

"Then I guess we're done? I'll be honest, that was a bit easier than I expected." Pyrrha commented, leaning against one of the pedestals.

"Well, what would you expect? It's not like this place is really difficult to find."

...

Even after the little scuffle a minute ago, which resulted in a slap to Jaune's face for holding her "arm" for one second too long, the two continued down along the dank cave while using the walls to move across. It only took another minute's search before they finally found something.

"That's the relic!" Jaune exclaimed, eyes' widening with joy as he approached the glowing object. Coming out of the dark, Weiss herself was rather surprised.

"I don't believe it..."

"You may praise me at your leisure, madame." He joked.

Say what you wanted about him. You could say he was a doofus, you could say he was dumb, you could say he was weak! But after today, all were going to bow before the awesomeness of the great Jaune Arc! No one was going to second guess him ever again! The women were going to fawn over him, every man was going to want to be him, and he and Weiss would live happily ever after as man and wife! Nothing could ruin his day!

"Gotcha!" He yelled swiping at it. To both their confusion, the relic actually moved a little out of his range, jumping in the air as he tried to grab it. "Hey! Bad relic!"

"Umm Jaune?" Weiss tried to warn, slowly backing up.

"Relax angel, I got this." He reading himself as he began timing his next swipe perfectly. "GOTCHA!" He shouted, throwing both arms over the relic. For what little joy there was briefly, it all began to dwindle as he felt himself being lifted slowly into the air. It was only now that Weiss realized what the relic truly was, not even needing the face of the creature to light up before them.

It was a Grimm. One Jaune had disturbed from it's slumber, and with only one plausible way for Jaune to respond appropriately to this.

He screamed.

"Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

...

"Some girl's in trouble!" Blake shouted, looking in the direction of the loud echoing scream. Unlike her, Pyrrha found herself distracted by the strange object falling from the sky.

...

Weiss couldn't look back, not even for an instant, as she ran out of the cave. She needed to visual indication of the massive creature chasing her, the deathstalker bursting through the cave's entrance itself with Jaune still on it's tail.

Out of all the Grimm they could've met within these woods, she couldn't believe it. She expected the beowulfs easily, the massive Ursas without a doubt. Expecting a giant deathstalker of all things were the last of her thoughts. How on Remnant would anyone even managed to get a deathstalker within these woods to begin with?!

Turning back towards the beast, Weiss readied her weapon. She might be able to hold off the creature for now, but with Jaune stuck holding onto it's tail, and the forest full of Grimm behind her, there was no way she could fight this thing safely.

"Ahhhhhh!" Jaune cried holding on for dear life. "Ahhhhh! Why? Ahhhh! Weiss! This is not the relic! It's not! Ahhhh!"

"Yeah, I kinda got that!" She shouted back, wondering what to do. She could try using her glyphs, but there was no guarantee how the Grimm itself as going to react while Jaune was on it's tail. If he let go, he would've dropped down in front of the monster's gaping jaws, and if he stayed on, he only made it more difficult for Weiss to figure out a plan. "Listen, Jaune! Whatever you do, don't let-!"

 _*swish*_

"AHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhh-!" With a simple flick, the monster tossed Jaune through the air, getting lost in the distance with the spear still on his back.

Well, at least she didn't have to worry about Jaune's safety at this point, mostly since now he was either going to live or die either way once he landed. All that did leave her with was a worrisome Grimm, the very one Jaune angered by grabbing it's tail, and now left Weiss all alone to deal with it.

"Ugh... Jaune..." She grumbled to herself. "I swear if I die from this thing, I'm going to kill you..."

...

"Hello? Pyrrha? Did you hear that?" Blake spoke, trying to get her attention. For the last thirty seconds the girl appeared to be in some form of trance, just looking in one direction this whole time.

"Umm... Blake?" She finally spoke, slowly raising a finger to the sky. "Does Ruby have some sort of flying ability or something?"

"Huh? No, why?" It only took the following of her finger to figure out what she meant.

There she was. It was Ruby! Her pride and joy of a sister-like friend! Descending from the sky. At a fast pace. Flailing her arms. And nothing to stop her.

"Heads uuuuuuuuuup!"

"Oooooh boy-"

 _*CRASH!*_

...

...

"Ahhh!" The young ten-year-old Ruby yelped as she awoke. She panted a bit as she looked around her room, realizing it was all a dream.

Or most of it, anyway.

Here she was, in her dark bed in her dark room, with nothing else to comfort her other than Wolfie who's always been by her side. This was how it was for the last several months since Cinder brought her to her "Grandma's Domain", otherwise known as Salem. After the events which caused her to run away from home, be kidnapped, and rescued by the same person she once shunned, Ruby found herself living with her Grandma for the foreseeable future.

It wasn't her fault, farthest thing from it actually. At first she even thought she was being punished for running away. Cinder remembered all the tears and begging she had when she told Ruby she was going to live with Salem from now on, at least until she could put together her own life, whatever that meant. And just like she promised Ruby, she was there for every weekend with her darling flower. Whether it came to playing, reading, doing a bit of training here and there with Cinder herself, Cinder always made sure each and every weekend she would see her precious girl. In fact, out of the next three years to follow, there were only two weekends entirely that she didn't come to Salem's domain, which is a pretty good track record all things considering.

And Cinder made sure she never felt alone either. How could she possibly do that? By leaving the second closest thing in Ruby's life with her; she left Neo here too.

It was a bit difficult adjusting to the new charges Salem was left with, not as difficult as Neo soon found it to be. The older sibling found herself in charge of a dozen new tasks from a daily basis, basically finding herself transforming into a part-time servant in addition to a full-time big sister. It wasn't that Salem didn't like the older sibling, in fact she respected her in many aspects for taking care of her prized silver-eyed girl. But if there were going to be two more people living here from now on, she was going to make sure Neo took care of their priorities like cooking, laundry, cleaning, in addition to the rest of the facility. As long as she got to stay close to her little sister, Neo hardly seemed to care.

Then there were the days where Neo was absent, sort of like now. These were a rare occasion that usually occurred once every two or three months. On days and nights like these, after Cinder was prepared to leave again, Neo found herself tagging along when her assistance was required by Roman himself in whatever heist or robbery they needed to pull off. No matter how insistent and worried she was for her younger sibling, her loyalty towards Roman always found herself obeying his requests, always leaving Ruby for a few nights until the next heist or scheme was completed. That left the current ten year old with no one else but her Granny and Wolfie to look out for her, along with whatever subordinates were around the facility.

That was usually when Ruby found herself haunted by nightmares every time she slept. On days where it was just her, Wolfie, and all the Grimm wandering around these bleak halls, any time she would go to sleep without some form of human companion, she found herself plagued by nightmares. They were often simple ones mind you, usually just finding herself alone or being chased by a Grimm, which she could usually get over with ease when Wolfie awoke near her, licking her face as Ruby cuddled up to her to go back to sleep.

This time, however, she found the presence of her companion still unable to help her.

"Mmh..." She mumbled to herself, looking around the room before climbing down her bed, dressed in her orange pajamas. Her furnishes were pretty standard for the average child's bedroom, and one of the only bedrooms with the second-most accommodations compared to Salem's own room. It had a simple desk with drawers where she could work on whatever lessons Watts was instructed to teach her, she had a few chests of either clothing, some games, and a bookshelf to the side of those. She also had a simple desk lamp right next to her bed, the brightness covering the rest of the purple-painted room whenever the outside's sky was too dark to see.

None of that mattered though. The only thing that mattered was finding her way through the dark hallways which were only lit up by the lit torches on the side of the walls every couple of yards. Like always when she opened the door, she was greeted with the sight of two beowulfs sleeping at the door, guarding it for her protection. What the protection was from, she was never informed of. All she was aware of was that, under no circumstances, was she ever to go outside this place without Salem's presence.

Something she had yet to ever do with the young one.

After several minutes of exploring, passing the occasional sleeping or Wandering Grimm in the process, she came upon Salem's own room. What more fitting of a door could someone like her need than one covered in pure black, the borders and streams of it covered in a blood-red coloring. The handle itself was just as creepy when it came to the texture and feeling of it. To the young Ruby, it felt like a the roughness of someone's really boney hand, the handle itself edged like it was carved out of pure bone.

And the inside of the room was as grand as one could expect for a supposed "Queen of the Grimm", or at least how Ruby would describe her Queenly status. The bed itself was massive, practically taking up a good third of the room like any high ruler would have. The bed itself looked like it was fashioned out of the jaws of a giant Grimm, the borders and edges of it surrounded by rough teeth as if to protect the sleeping maiden who slept atop of it. She also had more furniture than Ruby, having at least two different dressers, several drawers, and a full-length mirror attachment she could use to get ready for the day. And just like Ruby's, her room was the only one to have a bathroom attachment next to it, suited for her private, personal, use.

Rubbing her hands nervously to herself, she silently walked her way over to the side of Salem's bed. There she was, the ruler of this place, dressed in a white long black nightie with her hair flattened against the bed. She looked so peaceful sleeping on the side, facing Ruby's direction as the girl came to her. Confusing enough, to Ruby's curiosity, despite the high quality leather bed and pillows, and the luxurious silk sheet blankets she had excess amounts of, she didn't use any of it. She just lied there on her side, head resting atop the side of her arms as she slept.

"S-Salem?" Ruby spoke quietly. She hesitantly reached over for her arm as she tried to shake her awake. "Granny? Granny Sa-"

 _*bomp*_

"Ng-!" Ruby yelped frightened. Just a few inches from Salem, the woman suddenly grabbed Ruby's arm out of reflex, her red eye snapping wide open at the intruder who tried to attack her in her sleep. Only, to her surprise, it wasn't some sort of deadly assassin.

It was just Ruby, who's eyes slowly grew teary at the tightening grip of the older woman.

"Ruby?" Salem groaned a little as she rose from her bed, doing her best to hide away the anger and fear she was ready to intimidate her attacker with as she rubbed her eyes. "W-What are you doing up so late?"

"I had a bad dream." Ruby whined.

"...And?" The concept was entirely new to the ruler of all darkness.

"Can I sleep with you tonight?" None of this made any sense to her.

"Don't you have Wolfie or some Grimm to keep you company?" Salem asked.

"Y-Yeah but... they were part of the nightmare I had... they're not making me feel comfortable right now..."

"Well I'm sorry Ruby, but the answer is no." She said, turning back to her other side as she tried to sleep again.

"But mom would let me sleep with her!"

Damn it Cinder. Out of all the things, she could never teach Ruby to face her fears or her nightmares, she just had to let this one involving a nightmare slip by. Why? Was it because she enjoyed sleeping with the young girl? Whatever the reason was, it was an annoyance to Salem herself, seeing how she would be forced to comply.

With a sigh, she leaned up once more as she looked back to the younger girl.

"Fine, you can sleep with me, but just for tonight." While she still tried to seem imposing, she found the eager excitement growing on Ruby's young face to be somewhat comforting. Her confusion started to grow when she saw the young girl reaching over for the covers. "What are you doing?"

"Huh?" Wasn't it obvious to her? "I'm just pulling up the blankets."

"Why?"

"To... To stay warm of course." She answered.

"Don't." Salem said in a firm tone. "Having warmth and such qualities makes you weak. If you can't handle a little cold then you'll never grow up to be strong."

"Mmh..." Ruby moaned, looking down at her feet. The blankets alone felt extremely comfortable, she couldn't picture how it would feel being under the covers! Then again, this was her grandmother she was talking to. Out of all the lessons her mother taught her, it was to always be respectful and kind to her dear sweet grandma, no matter what she requested. "Can I at least cover my feet then?" She asked, wiggling her exposed toes. With another groan she gave the innocent girl a nod, watching her as she wrapped up her feet in the warm bed.

"There, you happy?" She really wanted to get back to bed here.

"Mh hm!" Ruby smiled.

"Good. Then go to bed." She ordered, leaning on her side as she turned away once more.

"Can you tell me a story?"

By all that is unholy! Salem was baffled trying to understand anything from this girl. How in the name of all that was Dust did Cinder put up with this girl for so many years?! She wanted to do nothing more than to go to bed at this very moment, and yet this girl continued to harass her to no end! She gave her her permission to sleep with her. That alone should've been a high honor for the young girl to appreciate! Then she gave in and relented to her request for having the covers on her, at east up to her feet. That was as compassionate as she could get for the young Ruby. So why did she continue to make requests?!

Come to think of it, she never really took care of Ruby since she got here. She taught Ruby what she could, educated her about the world through her eyes, but she's never actually took care of Ruby's basic needs outside of providing food, clothing, and some form of entertainment. Everything related to Ruby's home needs she left up to Neo, being one of the main reasons she allowed the older sibling to continue living within Salem's domain. It's not like she wouldn't have taken care of Ruby herself, it's just that there was so much work to be done and so little time on her hands. She needed to have someone else watch over the young girl whenever she was busy.

With a final groan, she leaned up one final time as she looked back to the younger girl, Ruby just smiling as she laid on her side like Salem had done.

"If I tell you a story, will you promise to go to sleep?"

"Mh hm!" Ruby nodded. Sighing to herself, Salem gave in to her horrifying demands as she leaned against the bed post.

"Fine. But it's not going to have a happy ending, got it?" She commented.

"That's ok! I'll just make one up then!" She decided.

Fair enough.

"That's fine." Clearing both her thoughts and her throat, she began telling her story.

"Once upon a time, there was... um... a girl named 'Sarem'."

"Hmhmhm," Ruby chuckled, "it sounds like your name!"

"Y-Yeah... funny coincidence. Anyway, ever since Sarem was born, she was quickly shunned by the rest of society. She-" She paused as she felt Ruby tugging on her nightie.

"What does shunned mean?" She asked curiously.

"It means kicked out. Hated. Disgusted with. Nobody loved her, and nobody wanted anything to do with her except for her own family."

"Why were they shunning Sarem?"

"Because she was a freak, a monster to the eyes of the world. Everyone else hated her and her seemingly-evil powers to control monsters."

"Was she mean?"

"No, sweetie. She wasn't mean. She was just a lonely, depressed, little girl, who nobody wanted to be with. The only friends she had were the dark monsters that surrounded her little village."

"And her parents, right?" Ruby added.

"...Yes, and her parents. So one day, she decided to make friends with everyone at once within her little town, and she brought all the little gri- I mean monsters to the center of her town to show them off one by one. She said to the people, "Look everyone! I can control the monsters! We don't have to worry about them hurting us anymore!"."

"And then everyone wanted to be her best friend, right?" The dark foreboding look on Salem's face gave Ruby a sense of unease. She was about to find out why this story didn't have a happy ending.

"No, Ruby. They didn't. Nobody wanted anything to do with her ever again. In fact, the very next night, the entire town gathered before her home, and wanted to put an end to the monster once and for all."

It couldn't be what Ruby was thinking of, right? She just had to make sure. "P-Put an end?"

"To kill her, Ruby." As expected, the young girl's face only shriveled with fear. "All she did was try to show everyone she wasn't the monster others claimed she was, and they tried to kill her. And that night, they ransacked her house, killing her loving parents that tried to protect her, and then burned the house down, and tried to burn her alive with it."

"T-Tried to?" Ruby asked, noticing her choice of words.

"They failed. The little girl escaped out the back window and ran through the woods passed the angry mob that chased her. All she could do was run away in fear, moving passed all her friends who died protecting her from the angry mob."

"A-And then what happened?" She asked worriedly.

"Then? That's it. She just escaped the mob, or at least those who survived the monsters in the forest. From that day, she decided if people were going to see her as a monster, then she was going to become the monster everyone always feared her to be. And she was never heard from again."

"...I-Is that it?"

"Yes, Ruby. Now goodnight."

Finally! Peace and quiet! She turned to her side trying to go back to sleep once more. Having lived within this realm of the world, night and day were hard to determine, but she was pretty sure it was early in the morning, maybe one o'clock at the most. At least now she could finally get sleep, probably sleep in till nine at the latest so she'd have another eight hours of sleep.

"Tch..."

 _*sniffle*_

You had to be joking. Salem groaned for, hopefully, the last time as she was shook from her shoulder by Ruby. This child was an official menace. All she wanted to do was get to sleep and-

She saw Ruby's face. She didn't know why, but it ached her to see Ruby crying before her. Why? Did she feel sympathy for the child? For that matter, what was Ruby even crying about?

"What's wrong now?" Salem mumbled, waiting for the child to clear her voice.

"Tch...eh heh...I-I don't like that story, Granny...tch..." She cried.

"Of course you didn't. I told you, it wasn't going to have a happy end-"

"I don't like what they did to Sarem!" She interrupted.

"...What?" That was not what she expected to hear. She expected Ruby to be in a crying fit about how the world was unfair, how the story didn't end happily, or how some of the humans died from the monsters or something. What she wasn't expecting was to hear the girl's cry for the fate of the "Sarem" girl within the story.

"I-It wasn't fair..." Ruby cried. "Why didn't people like Sarem? She didn't do anything wrong!"

"Y-Yes, I know Ruby but-"

"But nothing!" Ruby yelled, leaning up. "She was just an innocent girl who was lonely and without friends! Why were people so mean to her if she was just trying to help?"

"I-I don't know Ruby, I guess they were just scared-"

"It doesn't matter!" Ruby yelled sitting on her knees. "Why does it matter if people were scared of her? Why couldn't they just leave her alone or something then? They didn't have to try and kill herrrrr!" She cried, burying her face into Salem's chest.

Why.

Why in the world did it hurt?

Why was it, that for one of the few times in Salem's life, it hurt to see someone else cry. She wasn't hers, she barely knew the child, she didn't care if this child lived or died serving her...

Or was she just telling herself that? Was she just telling herself every possible negative thing to keep herself from being hurt? Was she just telling herself she didn't want to care for this child? She couldn't tell anymore! All she could tell was that she had a tearful child crying into her chest because she felt sorry for Sarem...

Sorry for Salem.

"...Ruby?" Salem spoke looking down to her. She couldn't help it. She felt compelled to wrap her arms around the young one's head. "Why... Why do you care so much about Sal- I mean Sarem, in the story?"

"Why?" Ruby sniffled a little as she cleared her eyes. "Because it wasn't fair what happened to her. She was a nice girl."

"How do you know that? Even if she was nice, maybe she was ugly? Maybe she looked like a horrifying monster, the kind that eats little children?"

"Did she?" Ruby asked a little too directly.

"N... No... B-But what if she looked like me? What if she was so scary she gave nightmares to little children around her?"

"You're not scary."

 _*ka-thump*_

No. She absolutely refused. She refused to believe she was actually touched by those three simple words.

"I'm... not scary?" She was baffled. Unbelievably baffled.

"No... unless you want to be. I don't mind."

"But remember when you first met me, dear?" Salem reminded, feeling the amount of terror running through the young child's mind when they first met. "You were scared of me then, right?"

"Well, kind of, but... I was mostly scared of the Grimm around here, not you personally. I think you're pretty and nice." She said sweetly.

"You think I'm... nice?" That was... well... honestly, even before all of this, she couldn't recall a single time anyone's ever called her "nice" of all things, much less pretty.

"Mmh..." Ruby mumbled to herself as she rubbed her eyes. "I'm getting sleepy..." Typical. She finally wanted to start asking Ruby questions and now the girl was getting too tired. She just watched as the young girl slowly laid on her side once more, tucking her feet into the covers.

"Ruby, I-..." She tried to think of what to say as she leaned on her side, this time facing Ruby. "Would you... H-How would you end the story, Ruby?"

"Mmh... me?" Ruby mumbled, eyes dozing off little by little. "I would've given her a friend to play with. A real friend."

It sounded simple enough, and yet... somehow from Ruby, it was... different. "A... friend?" She waited patiently for the child to finish yawning.

"Awwwhn... yup." Ruby smiled closing her eyes. "A nice good old friend... so she would never be lonely... and play with her every day... an..."

"...Ruby?" It wasn't surprising. After al the stress the girl experienced in the last few minutes, not to mention how late it was in the day, Ruby had finally fallen asleep.

 _*drip*_

"Hm?" Salem noticed a speck of water dripping down her own face, rubbing it between her fingers.

Darn that Ruby, the poor girl was crying so much that she got some of her tears on Salem's face... on her head... while... she was crying on her chest... a head below her...

Dear Dust...

She hated Ruby. She hated Ruby with all of her hate. She wanted to do nothing more at this point than to push her hands into that girl's chest and rip out her beating heart before squeezing it right in front of her so she could watch the moment of when she died. Because out of all the pain she's experienced in life, all the hatred and loathe she had for mortals everywhere, Ruby was a curse. She was an ungodly, indescribable curse.

Because for the first time in Salem's life, she finally found someone she truly cared for. Something that would make her weak. And despite all the voices screaming at her, she wanted to accept it.

...

The following morning Watts would find the strangest of sights before Salem's door. Right in front of him were not one, two, nor three, but nearly a dozen different Grimm consisting of beowulfs, Ursas, and anything else they could fit within the massive hallways. Why? Salem's inner chambers were located within the very heart of this palace, so there should've been no need for her to even need this much security, right? It was like she was less worried about keeping any intruders out, and was more preoccupied about keeping the rest of her henchmen out, because whenever he tried to reach for the door, noticing how late Salem was for today's morning meeting, several of the Grimm would growl at him until he backed away.

What was so important that Salem would rather keep it private?

The answer, was something only Salem would know about when she awoke in the morning. Back within her chambers upon her bed, there she was, with the young child sleeping within her very arms, with a small smile on her face and the blankets pulled over her and Ruby.

This was a first. Not just the first time she ever slept with Ruby, not just the first time she ever slept with anyone period, and not just the first time she ever slept with the cozy blankets over her. This was the first time, for as long as she could remember in her life, that she slept to having good dreams for a change. All because of the little girl she cherished in those arms of hers. She would never admit it, for the sake of her own cold heart, or to the subordinates, possibly excluding Cinder, but this child was... comforting.

From now on, she would always make sure Ruby had someone, less Grimm-related, to sleep with whenever she was here. After all, she officially owed her for giving something special.

She finally had a happier ending to the twisted tale from so long ago, and it was the first time she ever slept so warmly...

...

...

...

 _ **A/N: And another fun chapter done! Don't worry folks, i 100% promise the next chapter will have the grand finale (as in showing who's on what's team). This chapter was just to fill in a it of missing scenes as well as give people some cute and warmy fluff ^^**_

 _ **And a reminder- my birthday is next sunday, so deadline if you want to participate in the birthday contest is by then! Refer to previous author note only chapter for details, hope to see you soon :D!**_


	29. Vol 1 Episode 8: Players and pieces

**_A/N: Well folks, here it is! A grandiose treasure trove of a long chapter X) I admit, the first third I was a little questionable of, but the rest of it I thoroughly enjoyed writing about! Hopefully you guys enjoy the action to, as we dive right into a 10K+ Pre-A/N's chapter like never before :D...which is sure to be riddled with many bugs (not including death stalkers) and errors since I fleshed this out in under a day..._**

 ** _ENJOY!_**

 ** _..._**

 ** _..._**

 ** _..._**

 ** _~This will be the day we've waited for~_**

 _Cinder and Salem are seen standing on a balcony on the side of the latter's home looking out in the distance to where Vale would be. As they look up to a Nevermore flying overhead, the camera pans up as well, showing an orange sky that slowly turns blue._

 ** _~This will be the day we open up the door~_**

 _Returning back down from its view of the sky, we see Ruby opening the door to Beacon's main hall, Wolfie peaking out behind her, Blake standing next to her, oblivious to the Grimm's presence._

 ** _~I don't wanna hear your absolution;~_**

 _The Camera 'flies' through the hallways until it settles on Ozpin going through illegible notes on his scroll next to a photo of young miss Fall._

 ** _~Hope you're ready for a revolution~_**

 _Outside his window, dozens of students can be seen steping together and looking up in awe as the screen is overtaken by a storm of white petals_

 ** _~Welcome to a world of new solutions~_**

 _One of the petals remain before a black background and is revealed to be Ruby as she pulls out Crescent Flame and starts twirling her Scythe around, leaving a burning crimson Halo above herself._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of bloody evolution~_**

 _The red halo turns into Wolfie's red Iris as the camera zooms out revealing the pool of blood beneath the Grimm. before he dissolves into a shadow and to the side._

 ** _~In time, your heart will open minds~_**

 _The shadow flows beneath Ruby cloak who is standing with her team, a conflicted expression on her face. Soon though it is replaced with a look of determination as the Camera pans once more._

 ** _~A story will be told~_**

 _When the camera settles on Ruby's viewpoint we see Amber kneeling before Cinder, before the camera zooms back and her surroundings turn into the vault beneath Beacon._

 ** _~And victory is in a simple soul~_**

"Ruuubyyyyy!" Nora shouted as the scene came into focus. With the harsh winds blowing passed the two of them, it was understandable she would need to shout so loudly despite Ruby being possibly five feet away at most.

"Yeah?" She replied.

"This is the best idea everrrrrr!" Nora cheered with a cheeky grin.

"I know right!" Ruby chuckled, looking at the forest below them. "Now we got a bird's eye view of everything below, and we'll go incredibly faster!"

"Yeah!... By the way, I forgot to ask something!"

"What's that?"

"How do we get down?"

"..." Ruby looked back to the ground below them, a small shroud of regret slowly growing over her head. "...I didn't think that part through..."

"Do you... Do you think we should jump it?"

"Might as well." She shrugged. "Just give me a minute to time this, don't rush me."

"Push you? Ok!"

"Wait- What?! No! I said-"

 _*bomp*_

"Waaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh-!" Ruby's pleas were too slow. By the time she was ready to correct herself, Nora gingerly took the initiative of helping her new friend off the creature's feather, smiling as she was plummeting to the ground below.

"I am such a good person!"

...

"Hello? Pyrrha? Did you hear that?" Blake spoke, trying to get her attention. For the last thirty seconds the girl appeared to be in some form of trance, just looking in one direction this whole time.

"Umm... Blake?" She finally spoke, slowly raising a finger to the sky. "Does Ruby have some sort of flying ability or something?"

"Huh? No, why?" It only took the following of her finger to figure out what she meant.

There she was. It was Ruby! Her pride and joy of a sister-like friend! Descending from the sky. At a fast pace. Flailing her arms. And nothing to stop her.

"Heads uuuuuuuuuup!"

"Oooooh boy-"

 _ ***CRASH!***_

For better or worse, Ruby's plummeting collision course was caught none other than the very body of a young Jaune Arc slamming into her, both students being thrown into the thick burly trees surrounding the forest and tumbling down one of the many hardwood oaks to it's branches. The impact to her head was enough to rattle the caring brain of Ruby, the poor girl seeing nothing but stars being chased by cartoonish versions of wandering Grimm chasing them.

"Ugh..." She moaned with swirly eyes, head bobbing back and forth from the dizziness. "What was that? Ngh.." She shook her head fervently, trying to clear her head of the ringing sound going through it and the wobbling feeling through her body.

"Ahem." Jaune spoke, catching Ruby's attention. Much like her, he was also stuck in the large tree, legs being trapped as his body dangled from one of the bushy ends of the branches. "Hey Ruby."

At the same time, both Blake and Pyrrha were looking back to the trees mixed feelings of confusion. Blake knew Ruby was the adventurous type that would do nearly anything and everything to accomplish a task, within standards of course. Hurtling through the air though at who knows how many miles per hour, followed by being caught from a young blonde boy at quite the convenient timing? That was a new one. At least that did add two more students to the roster of people who've made it to the temple now.

To most people, they would consider the headmaster of this prestigious academy to be rather insane. After all, it's not everyday some headmaster goes about his business of putting children through a dangerous initiation which involves flinging them via catapults into the wide green wonder of the woods, tasks them with traversing the dangerous monster-infested forest of the Grimm, send them on a scavenger hunt that apparently took the form of chess pieces, instructed them to return to the steep cliffs from which they were all flung from, and defeat any and all monsters they come across in order to be graded and evaluated on their level of skill followed by placing them on different teams depending on their standings and who they met first.

Then again, they wouldn't make such an incompetent leader the headmaster, so he must be doing something right.

Within the few minutes leading up to this, the last of the teams had finally paired up with one another, each of them meeting someone for the first or second time since the initiation started. Weiss, to her regret, came across Jaune dangling from a tree, Ruby crashed into Pyrrha after using her semblance to find Blake and was then accidentally picked up by Nora riding a rampaging Ursa, Blake came across Pyrrha while the red-haired girl was fighting off several Grimm with her bare hands, and Yang came across Ren after punching the second head off a two-headed snake he was fighting. All in all, the matchups could be described as weird, but they were the events that brought everyone together at long last.

This also included various antics and shenanigans between a few of the groups though as they searched for the lost temple as instructed. With Pyrrha's keen sense of tracking, followed by Blake's great hearing thanks to her hidden Faunus features, they were the first to come across the strange monuments and relics Ozpin tasked them with finding. They had the best luck. On the other hand, Jaune and Weiss had the worst of this luck. Instead of finding what they at first believed to be a glowing artifact, it turned out to be the stinger from a giant deathstalker, the very creature being awoken from it's slumber and giving chase to the young Schnee and flinging Jaune from his tail when he refused to let go.

Ren and Yang were probably the only ones with the least amount of trouble compared to the other teams, seconded only by Ruby with Nora. On the whole, their task seemed the most normal out of the bunch, only encountering a Grimm or two here, fighting off an Ursa there, and they were close to finding the temple even as we speak. As for Nora and Ruby, their previous ride ended up leading them to a dead end as the Grimm crashed into a husky tree, flinging the two girls off while collapsing from exhaustion. With nothing else to do, after Nora put the Ursa down to keep it from harming them, the girls went with what they thought was the second best option.

Finding a much larger and dangerous Grimm, which brings us to where we are now.

"Did... Did Ruby just fall from the sky?" Pyrrha asked in amazement.

"Would you be more surprised if I said i was surprised too?" Blake's never seen her do anything of the sort before. Though to be fair, she hasn't seen her in the last seven years.

 _ ***GAAAOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUU***_

Their mystery was put on hold as the two girls looked towards the edge of their clearing at the sound of the monstrous voice. What they at first thought was going to be the rampaging charge of an Ursa turned out to be the death cry of the of the very creature. With steam rising from the back, the creature collapsed to the ground, revealing Yang who was cracking her knuckles with the same level of enthusiasm as when she started.

"Ha! I'm on seventeen!" She said, patting herself on the back.

"The creatures wouldn't be attacking us as often if you kept the volume down." Ren commented coming out of the thicket.

"Hey look, it's-"

 _ ***WHOMP!***_

Pyrrha's discovery was cut short by the sight of the Valkyrie girl who just dropped from the sky, slamming her mallet to break the impact of the fall with great excitement.

"Touchdown!" She cheered, smiling up to the other two. "Hey ladies! Either of you seen Ren or Ruby? I've been looking for Ren everywhere, and for some reason she wanted me to push her out of the sky."

"Ugh... no I didn't..." Ruby mumbled, coming out of the woods as she rubbed her head. Her attention would've immediately stuck to the sight of Blake before her if it wasn't for the nearby temple within the clearing. "Huh! Nora, we found the temple!" She cheered, both girls quickly dashing to the monuments as Blake just smiled.

"Yup, that's the Ruby I remember."

This was it! This was the long search they've been waiting for, people of interest withholding! After a perilous journey, tons of danger, and a thrilling ride, both girls had finally come across the promised lands they've been searching for! Both Ruby and Nora could only ooh and awe at the sight of the marvelous treasures, their long awaited adventure having finally come to an end!

There was only one possible piece either girl could think about taking, both smiling with glee as Ruby and Nora grabbed a rook.

"I'm Queen of the Castle!"

"I'm Queen of the Castle!"

"We're Queens of the Castle!" They cheered, throwing an arm around each other.

"Nora?"

"Ahhh!" Like with the singing both girls screamed in unison as they jumped into each others arms, frightened at the startling voice of Ren approaching from behind them. And just as quickly as that, both girls blinked to themselves at the following question.

"Wait who's standing?" Ruby asked.

"Not me."

 _*THUD*_

Ren waited for both girls to pick themselves off the ground, bracing himself for whatever jumps of excitement Nora would greet likely greet him with.

He was right to be ready.

"Ren!" She rejoiced, throwing herself at him as he did his best to fight her off. He was glad she was okay after all this time, but he would prefer her first instinct not to crush him in an Ursahug, again.

"Calm down Nora, everything's fine." He tried to convince, struggling to keep the girl's overpowering might from killing him.

"About time you got here." Ruby's eyes shifted from the two as they located the sound of the relieving voice. Like Ren himself, she braced herself for whatever tackles of joy Ruby would throw at her.

Unlike Ren, she wasn't quick enough to react to Ruby's semblance.

"BLAAAKE!"

"Oof-!" Blake yelped as she was tackled to the ground, Pyrrha just chuckling at the sight of Ruby's excitement as she went on and on about missing her and everything she's done.

At the same time, Yang just watched the scene as the two step-siblings were reunited. Even to this day, she wishes she had her own little sister like that, someone she could teach and protect. It often made her wonder at times if they would've had the same sister-sister relationship like those two did, or if they would be shouting at each other constantly, which was still somewhat preferable.

All the same though, she was just as content with watching

"Any chance this belong to you?" Jaune moaned, rubbing his aching side with spear in hand, coming out of the woods.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha was relieved like the last two girls, not just at the sight of Jaune himself being okay, but that he carried her spear all the way back to her. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah...never better." He groaned rubbing his head as he handed over her weapon.

"My spear!" Pyrrha overlooked it with great enthusiasm, giving him a respectable bow in return. "Thank you so much, Jaune! By the way, what happened to you?"

"Yeah, it's not everyday superboy goes flying through the air." Yang commented, checking to see if he was okay too.

"Speak for yourself." Ruby joked getting back to her feet with Blake.

"Huh? Oh, that! Well, I was exploring a cave with Weiss and-!" He nearly flinched as realized the missing party member. "Ah! Weiss! We have to go back for her!"

"Whoa, hey, calm down!" Yang shushed as he tried to run passed her. "What's going on?"

"Weiss! The cave! Big Grimm-!" He fretted, panicking over trying to explain himself as quickly as possible while wanting to go save someone at the same time.

"Jaune, what are you talking about? What happened to Weiss?" Pyrrha asked calmly. Jaune took a deep breath of fresh air as he tried to explain everything at once.

"I was exploring a cave with Weiss because we thought it might lead to the temple or something." He explained. "We used a torch when I- err... it blew out, when we saw what I thought was the relic we needed. Turns out it was just a giant scorpion Grimm thing-"

"Death Stalker." Ruby quickly interrupted, catching the group's attention.

"Huh?"

"Death Stalkers. They're pretty much like Jaune said. They're usually nocturnal and only hunt at night though." The white-hooded girl went on to explain. "If what Jaune said is true, then someone definitely angered it from it's nap. Weiss isn't going to be able to kill it with her rapier either, it's exoskeleton is going to be too thick to penetrate."

"How the heck do you know that?" Jaune's question was on practically everybody's mind. All they got for a response was a grinning Ruby resting her hands behind her head.

"My Grandma was a scientist, She taught me a lot about Grimm she used to work with."

The best kind of lies are the truths mixed with the lies. That's the one line Roman always nailed into Ruby's head. Whenever you're going to be lying about something, you need to add a bit of truth to it. On the off chance someone has evidence supporting otherwise, the liar is going to start making up more things on the spot and be in a world of trouble from attempting such a simple charade. However, if someone was to mix truths with the lies, then they could go into easier detail to counter any piece of evidence that someone tried to throw at them.

Plus, it wasn't like she was actually going to say some lady with the seeming ability to control Grimm taught her. Chances are only half of them would believe that anyway.

"Ugh, who cares," Jaune said moving on, "we still have to go back for Weiss! Who knows what kind of danger she's in!"

"What do you mean? Weiss is doing just fine." Nora said looking back.

"What makes you say that?"

"Cause I can see her running back." She replied, gesturing with her thumb.

All eyes turned back to the edge of the clearing. Just like Nora said, there was Weiss Schnee, the heiress herself, panting with exhaustion as she ran through the woods. They didn't have time to process the thought of what she was running from as immediately following her, crushing numerous trees in the process in it's wake, was the dreaded Death Stalker Weiss and Jaune had awoken from it's slumber to begin with.

The Schnee girl herself was more than in a hissy about everything she's been through up to this point. Taking a split second pause to set about another glyph, the ground below her started to glow until she jumped from within it. The power behind the rune itself gave her ample opportunity and dexterity to jump another ten yards away from the creature just before it was closing the gap between them. This had been the method she's been using since the start of this little scorpion-and-mouse chase, relying solely on her Glyphs to escape her predator.

The process of doing this for the last several minutes had been exhausting, but it beat the alternative of her being killed by the Grimm chasing her. Between that monstrosity and the other Grimm she had hastily been escaping from since the start of this running spree, she was about to drop dead at any moment, only motivated by the possible side effect stopping would've caused.

Death.

"Huff... Huff..." Weiss panted, finally running up to the group. The Death Stalker itself seemed to be staring curious at the young Hunters and Huntresses, pondering what to do as it hissed. "I hate... huff... huff... Death... Stalkers..."

"Hey Weiss!" Ruby greeted chipperly.

"Not now, I-" Out of all the frustration, she was actually a little relieved by the sight of Ruby among her other fellow initiates, some more preferred than others. "Ruby? Jaune? Huh! Pyrrha!" The further down the list she went, the more excited she was to see said person.

"Are you alright, Weiss?" It warmed Weiss' exhausted heart to hear such words of compassion and worry from her idol. She couldn't wait till this was all done and they could be on the same team together!

"Yeah, I'm fine." She replied, looking worriedly back to the giant Grimm that followed her. "What are we gonna do about that thing."

"I say we kick it's tail." Yang suggested, stepping forward as she cracked her knuckles.

As if to demonstrate the severity of her woods, Yang took no pause as she began assaulting the giant beast with nothing but brute force. She quickly delivered a fast flurry of her attacks to the monster's head, trying her best to outmaneuver each of the creature's shaky movements while at the same time dodging each of it's swipes and attacks from it's tail.

What should've been a relatively easy battle for her slowly started becoming a battle of wits. No matter how many blows she tried to deal with the creature, doding to another side as she avoided it's deadly tail, the monster only continued to hiss and roar at her, not backing up in any detail as it tried to attack his prey. Saying Yang was growing frustrated just from trying to topple this thing would've been the very definition of understatement, the poor girl trying to jab a dozen quick jabs into it's unguarded side, only to be met with the same results.

With the instance that she tried avoiding the creature's tail, she found herself outsmarted by the giant bug. Unlike before when it simply drove it's tail in front of itself, this time the creature reacted to her blasting herself away from it's trust, quickly turning to the same direction the blonde turned as it slammed one of it's massive claws straight at the girl's body, sending her flying into the several trees Ruby and Jaune crashed through.

Thankfully, her grand aura and semblance helped in recovering her stamina and energy a bit, but left her with an underlining problem that she hated to admit to herself.

This thing's skin was too tough! She only got a few feet away from the group, grumbling as she squeezed her fist, before Weiss interrupted her, blocking her path towards the creature with her arms stretched to each side.

"I mean an actual plan, Yang. That thing is huge, and I couldn't even cut it when I tried." She said looking over her sword. She could recall each and every cut she dived into the creature's flesh when she tried fighting it, only to be met with nothing more than mere dent-like punctures at most. More importantly, she wanted to keep Yang from repeating the same mistake over and over again. This wasn't just a Death Stalker. It was a Grimm that was smarter than all the others as it learned from it's mistakes.

At least to a point where it knew to predict Yang's movements.

"We might be able to kill though if we all work together." Ren said pulling his guns out.

"Well that's fine, but what do you wanna do about the Nevermore?" Ruby wondered, earning confused looks from several of the students.

"What Nevermore?" Pyrrha asked. Ruby didn't even need to say something as she just pointed to the sky.

All looking up at once, they saw the giant bird-like Grimm Ruby just spoke about. The size of the bird was gigantic, nearly the size of an actual plane in comparison, if not a few feet larger in all manner. Looking back on it now, only deciding to think about it after all this time, Ruby began to wonder if it wasn't the best idea to find a sleeping Nevermore, stir it awake by cutting it's foot and plucking a feather, and hitch on the sides of it for a ride in order to find the ancient temple they were searching for.

Then again, it did pretty much work as well as Ruby and Nora expected, so, you know, win-win... Well more like win-win with a side of an angered Nevermore that would never forget about how much you hurt it.

"I think it's still upset when Nora and I woke it up."

"Yeah, plucking some extra feathers for a souvenir probably wasn't the best idea either." Nora added, looking over one of the giant features she kept on her person for such an occasion.

"Ya think?!" Weiss yelped. No, it wasn't enough that she had to deal with the giant scorpion along with the rest of the group, now they had to deal with a giant flying Grimm as well. "We should just take the relics and get out of here while we can."

"Are you kidding? I haven't even gotten to kill a single Grimm yet!" Ruby complained, pulling out her scythe. "My grade's going to be the lowest if I just take this thing and run."

"Wait, Ruby!" Pyrrha panicked, grabbing Ruby's arm. "You can't fight with your scythe out here!"

"Why not?" She better have a good explanation because at this point, Ruby was at a cross. If she didn't kill any Grimm, she wasn't going to get any grade worth mentioning, and there was no telling how many points she possibly needed to be on the same team as Blake's!

"Because of the fire!" She pointed out.

It was only now that her reasoning dawned on her. All throughout the forest was, of course, wood. Wood had a tendency to burn greatly, especially the wood was dry and stale when the flames erupted. If Ruby had gone ahead and used her fire from the very beginning she'd be setting everything aflame with her ballistic fighting style.

On top of the flames spreading to literally every edge of the forest, it would be capable of possibly killing several of the other students taking part in this initiation test in addition to the hundreds of Grimm that lived within these woods. Not to mention with all the flames spreading madly, the amount of smoke created within this forest would make it impossible to find and rescue the remaining students if any of them remained in the woods when the flames went off, much less see any of them from any rescue from the air.

Basically, it was either not fight or risk killing anyone in the forest, including herself.

"Awwwwww..." Ruby moaned. She knew better than to tempt it even if it meant getting a higher score or ranking. She wasn't going to risk hurting her friends, especially Blake. "There has to be something we can do then?"

"I already said what to do! We just have to grab the relics and run." Weiss repeated, grabbing several of the remaining pieces and tossing them to the other students, saving a golden rook for herself.

"But Weiss-!"

"No... No, Weiss is right, Ruby." Blake spoke up, much to Ruby's sorrow.

"Not you toooooo..." She moaned.

"No Ruby, I mean seriously, we should fight it at the cliffs! Your fire shouldn't affect anything at the cliffside!" She stated.

"...Ooooohhhhh!" The truth finally came to the young red-hair-tipped girl. If nothing could be done about her fighting around here, then the only solution that did leave was to fight it at the cliffs. The other students actually had no issues with this plan either. For Weiss, it finally meant getting everyone somewhere safer even if it did mean still fighting the two creatures. As for everyone else, they were willing to help Ruby if it meant her getting some points, not to mention how much it might help their own standings if they all worked together to take down these giant creatures. "Fine, we'll fight it at the cliffs!"

"Ugh, fine," Yang groaned rolling her eyes, "but I still call dibs on kicking this thing's butt!"

"Whatever! Let's go!" Weiss ordered, leading the run from the creatures as the students followed.

The students ran side by side, only taking brief glimpses behind them to see the oncoming Grimm that pursued. Every now and then the farther students did what they could to slow the creature down, Blake shooting back at it with her weapon with Nora blasting the ground near it with her grenade launcher, causing it to stumble long enough to distance themselves by another yard every now and then.

The pursuit from the creature was fast and just as dangerous as the creature itself. Several times over, the group came across another creature of darkness, whether Beowulf or Ursa, several times assisting the greater Grimm by giving chase to the retreating students. It was during those times they were rescued by Yang and her quick actions, managing to deal a single blow to the oncoming Grimm that chased, doing what she could to knock them out in one blow and into the way of the giant scorpion that chased after them, being trampled or swat away by the creature's giant claws.

It only took up to three whole minutes of running before the group finally came upon the cliffside. It's amazing what one could do when their life was being threatened by a giant insectoid trying to devour them all, alongside a giant bird flying around the air. Thankfully the other Grimm within the forest stopped giving chase at this point, whether due to their numbers dwindling in size or simply afraid of the creatures tracking the students themselves.

The cliffside itself was nothing short of amazing in all honesty, the surrounding ledge of the cliff riddled with pillars and stone monuments stretching throughout the entire clearing they came across. Many of them were dwindling to dust and debris, several of them toppled over and ruined through the passage of time. And that wasn't even the most impressive architecture left behind through the ages.

What really took the scenery before them were the giant bridges and building standing up from the center itself. The strange monument rose from the very depths of the cliff's chasm, the base of it being lost within the surrounding fog alongside the bridges and pillars. The force of time was no match for any of the standing structures, the grand steeple that rose from the chasm standing testament against nature's very own might. It was the method intended for the students to traverse upon their return to the cliff side.

Now, it was going to be their battleground.

"Come on, pass the bridge!" Jaune yelled, being the farthest of the group. No one could resist looking back every other moment, seeing the approaching Death Stalker only seconds behind them.

 ** _*Caaaaaaouuuuuuuuuuuuuu!*_**

The piercing cry of the Nevermore echoed throughout the valley, soaring through the skies until it perched atop the very steeple they were planning to run to, forcing them to hide themselves behind the surrounding pillars out of the Grimm's sight.

"Now what?" Yang called over to the pillar several yards to her left where Pyrrha and Nora were.

"Let's just give it a good whackin', that'll send it running!" Nora suggested, excited at the thought of fighting the giant bird thing.

"I can kill it!" Ruby called back, being at the pillar ahead of them, next to Weiss and Ren.

"Yeah, I'm sure we all can, Ruby! We need a more solid plan!" Yang retorted.

"No, I mean really! I can kill! In one hit!" She paused looking down the forest as the Death Stalker approached, only a minute away. "And the Death Stalker too! I just need them both at the same time!"

"You want us to WHAT?!" Jaune yelped in disbelief. Oh sure, that made sense; give Ruby an opening to hit both the Nevermore and the Death Stalker at the same time and everything will be hunkydory soon after!

"Trust me! Unless you have a better plan, I'm all ears!" The options weren't that hard to choose from. Either let someone who claimed they could handle it do it, or be the guy to decide what everyone did immediately after within the next minute before the Death Stalker showed up.

It wasn't that hard to decide.

 _ **(A/N: Now is the preferred time to start playing Red Like Roses while watching the following scenes.)**_

"Well... A-Alright," Jaune called back, "what do you want us to do in the meantime?"

"We slow it down!" Nora cheered before diving into the open.

Whether anyone had a plan at that moment became pointless as Nora began the assault, shooting at the Nevermore with it's grenade launcher as the students began to run. The Nevermore roared with vigor as it shot dozens of it's razor sharp and heavy quills all at the same time, bombarding the students as they scattered out of the way, all preparing for the fight that was about to take place. The blasts from each of Nora's shells provided adequate distractions and annoyances for the large bird of prey, blasting it enough to cause it to stumble, forcing it from it's perch as it flew over once more.

Yang took the initiative with the Death Stalker as she charged it, firing her fists behind her as she launched herself into the air before it. The distraction was enough for Ren to get in hundreds of shots from his automatic pistols, the tiny bullets doing nothing to penetrate it's armor, but caused more than a slight irritation for the eyes it was bombarded with against the small pellets. Pyrrha ran for the bridge with Ruby as she looked back to this, providing cover fire with her sniper at each of the creature's eyes, actually managing to blind the third left eye it had with her superior sniper bullets in comparison to Ren's, though the results were negligible with the few targets she could hit in comparison.

The barrage of bullets provided more than enough of a distraction Yang took the beast on with full force, blasting atop the carapace of the wounded creature as it defended itself with it's massive claws. Yang only grinned as she took that as more of a challenge from the creature, blasting directly at the creature's claws to penetrate it's thick shell. And Weiss, with the opening clear, quickly rushed to Nora as she activated another of her glyphs to lighten the gravity, jumping away with the girl as she shot back at the scorpion creature once Yang blasted herself away from it's face again.

The entire process ended up being fruitless, the creature's thick skin being too rough to penetrate, but provided more than enough of a distraction from it as Ruby and the remaining students ran for the steeple across the bridge.

"That thing's tail is going to get in the way." Ruby commented as she looked back. Her commentary was cut short at the sight of the Nevermore approaching from the side again, sweeping away with the valley. "Any chance of you guys slowing that thing down too?"

"I'm on it!" Pyrrha replied as she took shots at the Nevermore's face. While she didn't manage to blind it like the first Grimm, she managed to irritate's eyes enough for it to swerve out of the way of the temple, taking it's time to come back for another loop.

"Ruby, you sure you can kill them both at the same time?" Jaune asked a little worried.

"Yeah, but I need you to do something else." Ruby ordered, pointing back to the Death Stalker. "I need you to cut off the tip of that Death Stalker's tail!"

"YOU WANT ME TO WHAT?!"

"I said-!"

"I KNOW WHAT YOU SAID! But why?"

"Because it'll make throwing it much easier!" She answered as she continued up the steeple with Blake.

"She's want... She wants someone to throw it?!" Jaune officially gave up at this point. Nothing could be said or explained at this moment when two giant monster were in the midst of terrorizing the other students. All Jaune could do at the time was shrug his head in annoyance as he ran back across the bridge, telling Pyrrha about his tail-cutting job before letting her resume her work.

Back at the Death Stalker, the monster continued it's assault on the students during Jaune's return. The monster was slowing down indefinitely but it wasn't showing any signs of slowing down or retreating from it's targets. It took many of Yang's hits and barely shrugged them off as it neared the students little by little, forcing them closer by the second towards the cliff. Yang herself was actually surprised by how durable the creature was, her fists beginning to hurt slightly from the blows she was inflicting on the creature. Thankfully her own semblance only empowered this pain as her strength increased, but there was no telling how long the creature would keep pushing back before either her semblance gave out or her fists did.

Weiss did what she could to support both parties, providing Glyphs that either lightened the gravity before both sides, allowing Ren to dodge another swipe from the Death Stalker, or providing Air Support for Pyrrha who was single handedly shooting at the Nevermore's mask to keep it distracted. Her position never changed yet she provided the most crucial assistance for both parties. Several times Yang found herself owing Weiss, her miraculous glyphs appearing just in time for her to use and dodge out of the way of the creature's stinger.

"Weiss!" Jaune called out as he ran over. "I need your help! Ruby needs me to help cut off the stinger!"

"She wants you to what?!" Weiss asked with the amount of disbelief as Jaune was in.

"Yeah, I know, I said the said the same thing, but she has a plan!" He assured.

"Fine then, just get into position, I'll get it to freeze." She replied. It didn't matter to him if he couldn't understand her exact words, all he was preoccupied with was trusting in Ruby's plan and Weiss' assistance as he ran to the creature himself.

"Ruby!" Blake called to Ruby as the two ran up the steeple. "Is there anything you need me to do?"

"Just help Pyrrha with-"

"LOOK OUT!" She yelped, suddenly tackling Ruby to the ground steps.

Not two seconds ahead of her and Ruby would've found herself either impaled by the giant feathers that suddenly stabbed into the tower, or found herself hurtling to her own death at the sight of the crumbling stairs ahead of her that came off from the feather's impact. Thankfully there was more than enough room to jump across the shattered walkways, the feathers themselves providing enough of a footstool for Ruby to leap across if needed.

"Whoa... Thanks Blake." Ruby said, getting back to her feet as Blake glared at her sister's attacker. "Try and help Pyrrha slow that thing down, see if you can get it to shake off more of it's feathers, then get off the bridge with Pyrrha when everyone's ready!" She instructed.

"You got it." She didn't need to be told twice, having enough motivation at the bird for nearly killing her best friend. Activating the rope in her weapon, she tossed the bladed end into one of the surrounding poles that ascended from the valley before jumping off the staircase she and Ruby were on. What few seconds of dread, terror, and confusion that filled Ruby's mind was swiftly replaced with excitement and awe as she saw Blake actually swinging from the rope with a burst of speed, the blade refusing to give way from her weight as she fell to the chasm itself, even passed the bridge Pyrrha was on.

The sniper herself watched with curiosity at the sight of Blake's jump until she saw the same girl spring herself above the bridge, using her momentum to lasso herself under and over the bridge just as the Nevermore neared the bridge. Before it could launch another attack, Blake released the grip of the blade from the bridge as she threw it over the Nevermore's neck, startling the creature again as Blake lassoed herself onto the back of the creature, wasting no time to spread across it's back as she delivered round after round of bullets into the creatures feathers.

Like the Death Stalker, they did little against the creature's flesh itself, but helped loosen dozens of the deadly features which popped from the bird with each shot. Little by little, few by few. Just enough to shake off any of the loose ones while keeping the bird capable of flight for Ruby to unleash her plan.

At the same time, the Death Stalker continued it's assault on the previous party just as Jaune entered the fray. Confused by his appearance at first, Yang looked over to see Weiss preparing one of her Glyphs, signaling the girl to the stinger to which Yang grinned to, nodding back in confirmation of the plan as she saw Jaune once again.

With Nora firing off several more stumbling shots to the creature's feet, Yang waited until Ren cleared the way once more before she started her massive assault on the creature once more. The others waited back as they continued firing at the creature with their ranges, Jaune waiting for the split-second timing he needed when Weiss got the creature's tail in it's place. After several seconds of blasting the creatures claws away, showing no sign of slowing down, the Death Stalker hissed as it did last time, attempting to impale Yang upon it's tail.

That was it's last mistake.

With lightning quick reflexes, Yang blasted the gauntlets towards the beast and herself away just as the creature landed it's stinger on the ground where Weiss had the glyph prepared. No amount of preparation or timing could've prevented the creature from it's folly at that point. Not even two seconds after missing and impaling the ground, the creature's tail suddenly began to freeze to the ground itself as a large pillar of pure ice rose from the surface, catching the entirety of the stinger's tip in it's frozen prison, long enough for Jaune to deliver one fell swoop upon it's tail, cleaving the stinger's tip from the tail itself. Blood and purplish venom dripped from the creature's gushing wound, hissing in cries of pain as it roared.

Having gotten to the top of the steeple, Ruby observed her surroundings from the seemingly-bottomless chasm to the Grimm both groups were fighting. Taking a deep breath to herself, she pulled out her Crescent Flame from under her cloak, admiring the blade briefly with a sigh.

"Deep breath... calm and patient... and the flames won't hurt me..." Ruby muttered to herself.

With her conviction solid and her conscience clear, she began twirling the Scythe about. What at first seemed like some sort of parlor tricks and twirls slowly began to give birth to the weapon's glowing aura. Little by little, sparks of flame slowly erupted around the young girl until it erupted into a giant ball of flame, spreading on all sides of her until the fires themselves engulfed her into a giant, growing, sphere. Regardless of the heat rising from it or the flames erupting forth, nothing gave way in Ruby's stance as she continued enlarge the flame, sacrificing large heapings of dust in the process as the fire continued to grow little by little.

It was only during a brief flash of the fire's flame that Pyrrha's attention shifted to the growing ember at the top of the steeple.

"My word..." She muttered. Forget setting the forest on fire, if this thing got out of hand in the a city, half the town would burst away under a giant flame! Even as the remaining students dropped their attention to see this, they never turned away from the current task at hand.

"Nora!" Yang called over, grabbing the girl's curious attention. With a simple gesture of her thumb, the Valkyrie grinned as she started shooting round after round at the Death Stalker's front. Each burst gave enough of a kickback to push the beast several feet from the ground, rising little by little with each round fired. After it rose up to a good 45* angle from it's current position, the Valkyrie thrust herself forward after reshaping her grande launcher back into a mallet, bursting from her point to the creatures location where she smacked it's underbelly, toppling the creature onto it's back.

The Death Stalker could only cry out in more pain as it struggled to get back to it's footing, legs squirming creepily in a spider-like manner as it failed to flop over, wagging it's shortened tail with nothing but fear. With that out of the way, the rest of Jaune's explanation mentioned, Yang prepared herself as she activated her semblance once more, granting her surmountable strength needed to preform her next amazing feat. WIth one massive tug, she slowly began to swirl the creature around, the rest clearing away from her as she rotated the creature about.

To help with this, Nora saw her opportunity as she jumped to the other side of the rotating creature. Using her gavel as nothing more than a battering ram, with each roundabout the creature neared her, she smacked her mallet to the side of it's head, helping Yang twirl the creature across the ground until it was ready for the grand toss that was needed.

With the growing fire, Pyrrha cleared from the bridge as the rest of Ruby's plan began to fall into place. From atop the Nevermore, Blake saw the glowing mass of fire with amazement, the flames only continuing to grow on while Ruby continued to be envelope in it's flames. Knowing this was the moment to strike, Blake lassoed herself one last time under the creatures neck, swinging herself across the cliff until she was on the other side with the remaining students, catching up and running with Pyrrha as she exited from the bridge and away from the nearing Nevermore.

Then, the plan finally came to pass.

Opening her eyes from within the flames, seeing the pieces fall into place as planned, Ruby leapt ahead of the Steeple's top into the air just as the Nevermore flew by. Within an instant, with what should've been a massive ball of weight, Ruby swung the Scythe underhead as the igniter of the blade pushed into the opposite direction, hurtling like the boosters of a rocket as Ruby pierced the massive bird's neck from overhead. And Ruby was only too far from finished with her final attack.

The boosters continued to flare, granting enough force and power for Ruby to actually lift the beast overhead with her scythe, twirling it about in the air at increased speeds until the creature itself started spinning along with her. The remaining fire within the large ball of light slowly dissipated as the blade of the scythe started to grow, growing redder and hotter with each passing swing of the scythe's powerful blade. Eventually the blade began to glow until it was as big as Ruby, being nearly three times the size it was when it penetrated the bird's neck where it came from.

That was the signal Ruby was trying to send, Weiss with sure of it. With one more call over to Yang as she and the Valkyrie girl continued to spin the scorpion about, she stabbed into the ground itself as the last-needed glyph grew from under Yang. With a large shout and a massive toss, amplified tenfold thanks to the assistance of the nearby glyph, Yang threw the creature with a mighty heave, sending it skyrocketing towards the Nevermore Ruby continued to flail about with fury and skill.

And as it all came together, Ruby managed to time the spinning of the Nevermore perfectly as she snagged the Death Stalker just as it came through. With every last ounce of strength, every last ounce of dust, she threw not just the Nevermore, not just the Death Stalker, but the large dust-created energy of fire into the chasm below the cliffs, sending the bird, the scorpion, and the burst of energy in one glorious blast into the fog's impenetrable wall.

 ** _*Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom!*_**

All the students shielded their eyes. Before them erupted a massive wall of fire, the flame spreading out like a wall, covering the entirety of the steeple as well as the cliffside in a glorious mound of pure fire. It engulfed the steeples which eroded away into mere dust, it more than engulfed the two Grimm as it incinerated them to nothing more than mere dust, and most importantly, it engulfed Ruby Fall herself.

"Rubyyyyy!" Blake called out to the fire with worry. Time was of the essence. None of them had a plan for what was to happen or what they could do except for Ruby from the very beginning. She couldn't approach the tremendous fire, she couldn't jump into without knowing of the scorching consequences. All she could do was wait it out until she saw some small beacon of hope that told her Ruby was still alive.

Thankfully, she didn't have to wait long.

No longer than ten full seconds passed until the massive wall of flame slowly dissipated to nothingness. Despite everything they saw, all the fire, all the burst of energy, all that raw power, the flames slowly dwindled until nothing remained of the destructive flames. And there, in the air, was the same Ruby who put together this wondrous plan, head held high with a grin and her scythe fully in hand.

"Told ya I could do it!" She cheered.

 _*ssst*_

"Huh?" She looked back to her weapon again. As opposed to her weapon shooting her forward like she had planned, there was only a brief sizzling noise and a small bout of smoke from the igniter. She had used up all the dust in her weapon, without even intending to. So, like most sane people, she said the only sensible thing she could think of. "Uh oh. AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" She screamed as she started plummeting to her death.

There was no debris below her thanks to the incineration of her large burst of energy. Even if there had been anything remaining, the distance to them still would've killed her in the oncoming fall. There was nothing for her to land on and no use of summoning Wolfie, the dog himself not being able to materialize through the fog-like cloud below. All she could do was pray.

"Ruby!" Blake shouted again as she rushed towards the cliffside.

Like she did with the Nevermore and the Bridge, Blake quickly tossed her blade over one of the nearby pillars on the ground, which thankfully withheld against the oncoming blast from the cliffside. With one grand dive, she jumped over the ledge just as Ruby fell, diving herself quickly until she caught the girl in her arms, just several feet away from the maximum range of the weapon's rope. With a sigh, Blake just smiled as she looked down to her hooded friend, the girl grinning back to her with slight embarrassment.

"Eh heh... I guess I kinda overdid it with the whole 'fire thing', huh?"

"Ya think?"

...

...

"Russel Thrush. Cardin Winchester. Dove Bronzewing. Sky Lark." Ozpin spoke out.

After the several minutes it took to find an alternative route to the cliff side, the students, all initiates included, had finally returned to the Academy for a momentous celebration. Before them was the academy, the students, Ozpin himself, everybody that would be there to commemorate their glorious occasion that would incite them to their future teams.

Above the headmaster himself were two monitors, each displaying a facial image of the students he read out as the team was formed. Like stated earlier, it was here that the students would forever find themselves stationed in one of the following teams for the rest of their lives. Not one of the mentioned students had any issues with who their teammates were, all of them great friends with one another who welcomed the team forming with great enjoyment!

Sadly, none of the remaining eight could say the same. They didn't not like one another, far from it. They were mostly worried about who was going to be on who's team from this point forward. For the next four years, they would spend most of their academy life with the following students, possibly being separated from the others for the indefinite future. They promised they would always be friends regardless, but they still held out hope for who their teammates were going to be.

"The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces." Ozpin continued as the students stood in respect and honor. "From this day forward, you will work together as... Team CRDL [Cardinal]. Lead by... Cardin Winchester."

Like before it, the team bowed respectfully as a round of applause was elicited from the audience.

Now came the moment of truth.

"Ruby Fall, Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie-"

Ruby's world froze, along with the other remaining girls. Whoever was going to be the last member of their team would most likely be one of their top choices. As for the rest, they would lose out on whoever they wanted for their own team pick. All of them praying for something spectacular to happen with the next set of words.

Please be Blake. Oh please oh please by Dust, let Blake be my partner...

I'm really hoping for Jaune here. I think he'd make a good leader...

RENRENRENRENRENRENRENRENRENRENRENREN-!

And the fourth member was...

TO BE CONTINUED.

...

...

...

 ** _A/N: ...Naaah, could you imagine what a dick move that would've been after waiting all this time XD?_**

...

...

...

And the fourth member was...

"Blake Belladonna!"

"Yes!" Ruby cheered.

"Awwww." Pyrrha moaned internally, keeping her composure maintained.

"Nooooooooooooooo!" Nora cried waterfalls. In an instant, she was from her spot, and the next one reappearing near Ren, clutching onto his leg like a clamp. "WHY IS FATE SO CRUUUUUUUUUUUEL?!"

"N-Nora!" Ren yelped, trying to pry Nora from his leg. "Can we please not do this right now? We're in the middle of an assembly-!"

All the same, Nora wasn't the only one watching with disbelief and trauma. Weiss could only drop her jaw mentally. Out of all the people in the world, why in god's name did Pyrrha not just end up on someone else's team, but why almighty did it have to be Ruby's!? This couldn't possibly get any worse!

And all the hooded Ruby could do was smile over to Blake briefly, the Faunus girl doing the same, and then to the headmaster himself.

"You have all gathered the black rook pieces and completed your initiation with flying colors. While I admit the methods were unorthodox, no one can deny your groups range of quick thinking, nor their ability to adapt to any given situation." Ozpin complimented, looking over the young students. "As such, from this day forward, you shall be known as Team RBPN [Ruben]. Lead by... Ruby Fall!

Ruby herself could only blink at that announcement. Did she just hear that right? Did she hear any of this right? She couldn't believe it, not a single word of it. Yet, when she gazed back to the other two, still dumbfounded beyond compare, there they were, smiling back at her, Pyrrha even nodding in acceptance of her official title as Team Leader.

"Wha... M-Me?" She repeated. She didn't have any time to react as Blake quickly embraced her in a tight hug.

"Oh, I'm so proud of you!" She cheered.

"Your orders are my command." Pyrrha nodded politely with a small salute.

"WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!" No introduction was needed for that screaming teammate.

And like before, Weiss was met with nothing but disbelief. Perhaps that was the normal reaction to anyone who entered a nightmare, because this assembly was becoming short of anything EXCITING!

"This couldn't get any worse..." She mumbled.

"And now for the following." Ozpin announced. "Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long. Lei Ren. And Jaune Arc."

"WHAT?!" It took all of Weiss' years of development skills to keep from shouting at that very moment. Now was the best time she found herself to stop saying it couldn't get any worse. Her only regret was not stopping a minute sooner.

"Ohhh yeah!" Jaune cheered, pumping his fist with excitement. He could finally cross off 'Having Weiss on his Team' from his list! Even after the announcements, most of the students presented themselves respectfully before the headmaster, save for Ren who continued to scrape his foot against the ground as he struggled with Nora refusing to let go, or stop crying.

"Your team shows promise, balance, and equality between each team member individually. But united, I believe you shall stand tall." Ozpin complimented, like the group before them. "Therefore, it is with great pleasure, I present to you with the team name, WYJR [Wire], and your team shall be lead by... Weiss Schnee!" Like the team before, even as he struggled to, both Ren and Yang congratulated the Schnee girl with great pride.

At least something good happened after all the trauma this day would cause.

"Well Weiss, looks like I'll be calling ya boss from now on, huh?" Jaune grinned, throwing his arm over Weiss. "Just remember my little snow angel, I'm up for any task you could possibly need." He reminded as he flexed his incredible muscles before her.

"First rule as the new leader; no touching the new leader." She said firmly without any emotion. The ambience she was giving off alone was enough to make him back away two feet.

"Sorry."

"It looks like things are shaping up to be an... interesting year..." Ozpin commented as she observed his recent students.

"WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY!"

Definitely an interesting year.

...

...

With the initiation at a close, and the assembly finished for the evening, Ozpin found himself where he always preferred finding himself.

Walking down the peaceful halls of the academy, with a cup of fresh brew in hand and serenity filling the air, Glynda herself following alongside behind him as she looked over her data.

"Nothing to say about the ceremony, Ms. Goodwitch?" It was unlike her to remain given the events that happened. It was a nice change of pace all things considered, he was just wondering what sort of argument she was going to have with the turnabouts.

"I see no reason to question you at this point." Glynda replied. "After all, you always have some ulterior motive behind everything. And even if you didn't, you actually didn't do anything wrong that I can find this time. After all, Ruby did score five more points than Pyrrha with her little stunt with the Grimm."

"Hmhm, I think I preferred it when you argued against me. I always felt so smart when I rebuttal everything you said." He joked.

"Well, all things considered, I suppose I must resign myself with asking. Are you sure putting the girl in charge of the team was so wise? I don't think anyone would pay it second mind if you had Pyrrha leading them." Unlike before, she didn't give him any chance of countering this. "Oh, don't worry Ms. Goodwitch, it's all part of my carefully calculated planning." She mocked in a teasing tone.

"Heh, took the words right out of my mouth."

"Well at least now I'm sure I know the reason this time. With so many people looking to her, she'll have too many prying eyes to keep her busy and away from searching for the maiden." She realized.

"Why don't you just take my job too if you're going to take all the fun out of it?" The delightful chuckle on her expression was all he needed to look back.

It's just as Goodwitch said, this would definitely keep Ruby from having more free time during the next four years. Every little distraction was another distraction away from the maiden, and gave him ample time to bring Ruby out of a certain someone's hold. Besides, even if that wasn't the reason, he was still surprised with her recent development and skills. She was very rough for sure, definitely needing training in how to use her dust more conservatively. But that's what schools were for, to learn from one's mistake. And here he was after announcing that Ruby would be the leader of her very own team.

Now he just had to wait and see how long it would take for him to regret it...

...

...

...


	30. Birthday Contest Extended! Please Read!

_**A/N: Hey guys, Monokub here after a fun-filled birthday :D! I just wanted to make a note, I'm accepting all late entries for the birthday fic contest till Wednesday. One thing I didn't take into consideration was everyone who was possibly gone during thanksgiving weekend who didn't have access to a computer, so if you need an extra day or two to get back home and settled in, finish up, or just post, nows the time to do it! I was originally just going to extend the timeline/due date till tomorrow, but I forgot to post this this morning, so I'm giving everyone an extra day just in case.**_

 _ **Again, you have till Wednesday to post something for the Birthday contest. As a reminder, it has to be Ruby related of course (but within my universe of Mama Cinder and all). For an example, as someone who posted it yesterday, refer to THB4's fanfic Unlucky 13, which I consider a great birthday fic (and thus far the only one but still XP). Hope to see other ones soon, and expect a chapter/episode hopefully tomorrow :P!**_


	31. Episode Interlude Plus Birthday Fic!

**_A/N: 5.6k Pre-A/N! Sorry for the short update this time around guys, and the small hiatus. I'm not losing my mojo or anything, far from that. Problem: I HAVE A FREAKING ANNOYING COLD AND A PAINFULLY RETARDED BACK ACHE I'VE BEEN WAKING UP TO FOR THE LAST WEEK- and the cold is brand new too so that isn't going away any time SOON T_T! But I do promise to add small bits here and there to tie people over in the mean time. They won't be that long or anything, but a few extra clips/scenes is better than nothing, right?... Right T_P?_**

 ** _Anyway, please enjoy!_**

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...

...

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! You can't separate uuuuuuuuuus!"

"Nora, we're not separating. We're just on different teams."

"Noooooo! He needs me! Can't you see his sadness!? Just look at the tears flowing down his pants!"

"Those are your tears, Nora."

"But can't you see how close we are? He can't bring himself to part with meeeee!"

"That's because you won't let go of my leg!"

This pretty much summed the following hour after the Initiation Ceremony.

After a long and arduous test, the students had finally come to the end of their perilous Initiation. For it, the students were required to journey through the Grimm-infested Emerald Forest, battling their way through the numerous Grimm as they searched for the missing temple within the woods to claim their relics, and return with them to the top of the cliff. In addition to determining the overall skill and quality of each individual student, it also determined who would be placed on who's team, and who would be the team leader of that team.

This lead to several broken hearts and disappointments, as well as a few satisfied customers when the teams were finally assembled.

For Ruby, she had formed the team RBPN [Ruben], consisting of Ruby, Blake, Pyrrha, and Nora, and was lead by the team leader herself, Ruby Fall. In all honesty, it was the farthest thing she, or Weiss, had ever seen coming. Up to this point, Ruby had just been concerned with actually surviving the initiation and joining up with Blake as a team member, a wish she was happy to see come true. The last thing she did expect though was for herself to be named leader of the team, a result of her scoring the highest amount of points during the initiation after managing to take down a Nevermore and a Death Stalker in a single strike, thanks to the combined efforts of the eight students remaining.

For Weiss, she found herself becoming the leader of her own team as well, forming the team WYJR [Wire], which included herself, Yang, Jaune, and Ren. The team was a little less than expected, much less hoped for, for the young Schnee girl. Out of all the people around her, she was praying that she would at least end up on the same team as Pyrrha. Not only did that not happen, not only did she end up on Ruby's team of all people, and not only did Ruby herself end up being the captain of the team instead of someone more refined like Pyrrha, she had the self-disappointment of ending up with Jaune of all people! He was nice all things considered, but for the next several years she could seem him constantly following her all over, just trying to show off in front of her to gain her approval.

And even then, she still couldn't picture or comprehend how Ruby would end up the leader of anyone's team, specifically Pyrrha's! Pyrrha was refined and elegant in all manner! She was the Mistral regional champion, she got some of the best grades in academic history, she was a skilled fighter and a courageous leader! How does someone like Ruby end up being the person in charge of someone like her?! She was the exact opposite of Pyrrha in almost every way, from her questionable friends, the spontaneous ideas she comes up with. She would've burned down the entire forest without thinking if Pyrrha hadn't stopped her in time to point that out to her!

At the very least, the one good side to come up to any of this was Weiss herself being the leader of her own team, as she should. It would take some adjusting as she tried to figure out everyone's strengths and weaknesses and how to utilize that as a team, but nothing a simple hour or two of studying and cooperation couldn't fix.

As for the other members of the team, they were all pretty content with the team turnouts with only minor disappointment, save for Nora who could easily be seen with major disappointment. Ren did care of Nora of course, but he wasn't about to go ballistic like her and hold onto her leg for the last hour forcing her to drag him everywhere after the meeting. Yang was a bit indifferent too, probably tied with Pyrrha in the minor amount of disappointment she shared. She did wish she could've had Ruby on her team too, her big sister sense telling her to look out for her while not knowing entirely why, but she was positive the friends she had on the team would keep her safe, all of them seeming like nice people.

The only one who couldn't comprehend or deal with this situation in a calm manner was Nora Valkyrie, the very girl who refused to let go of Ren's leg for the last hour. She couldn't understand it! What kind of cruel inhuman force would separate both her and Ren from each other?! They were always meant to be together, through thick and thin, good and bad times, morning pancakes and evening pancakes! Or whenever Ren made some pancakes, she wasn't too picky as to when she got them compared to how many get got.

That's why she refused to let go. There was no way she could bring herself to part with him for even a second, not until she figured out what sort of evil entity would possibly keep them apart! Even if that meant the rest of both teams being forced to walk slowly behind Ren until he reached his destination, trying to calm the excitable Nora down until she let go.

"Whyyyyyyyyyy! You can't keep us apaaaaaaart!" Nora cried loudly.

"Nora, if I say anything that will remotely cheer you up, will you please let go of my leg?" It was times like this Ren wished he had Nora's monstrous strength. It would've been the only thing capable of prying Nora from his leg.

"What could possibly say to make me the least bit happy?!"

*creeeeak*

"Huh?" The sound of the doors opening simultaneously finally gave Nora enough curiosity to open her eyes. Right in front of her, she saw both Ruby and Ren opening two different doors within the halls, which were right across from each other.

"You live right next door to me." Ren stated.

Almost as quickly as she clamped onto her leg did Ren see her spontaneously appearing at the opposite door to his room. This actually worked out perfectly for the young Orange-haired teen! Even if they weren't on the same team, they were living right next to each other, practically by arms reach so she could always take two steps to go visit him whenever she wanted!

In fact, the same enthusiasm was shared amongst a majority of both teams at that. Yang liked the fact she could visit Ruby and her friends anytime she felt like it, Pyrrha was glad she could meet up with Jaune and talk about stuff, Ren didn't have to worry about any about Nora doing anything crazy in order to meet with him like crawling through the ceiling vents several times a day to meet up with him, again, and it gave Ruby plenty of time to visit each and every one of her new friends around here!

"Sooooooo we can still hang out and everything?" Nora asked just to make sure.

"I'm fine with it!" Ruby said casually, Weiss just rolling her eyes to her.

"You're way to lax about stuff." Weiss commented. She still found it hard to believe she was supposed to consider this person as her 'equal', at least enough to make her a leader.

"Nah, you just need to lighten up, Weiss." Ruby grinned cheekily. "We just became teams, and the both of us are team leaders!"

"I still can't believe it..."

"I know right!" The poor innocent mind that was Ruby's didn't comprehend Weiss' sarcasm at that moment. "Anyway, so yeah! I'm fine with you hanging out with anyone, Nora. Same thing goes for everyone else."

"Sounds good to me." Pyrrha nodded. She was actually hoping for some rule like that. As long as they did their team training together and whatever other assignments they were required to do as a team, the rest of their time could be used to spend with others however they wished.

"Me too." Yang agreed, leaning against the wall. "We can still have breakfast, lunch, and dinner, we stick together during classes, a whole buncha stuff!"

"Just as long as it doesn't interfere during team training or assignments." Weiss added. "That is my only condition."

"Ugh... fine..." Nora moaned. She knew she couldn't be with Ren at every opportunity at this point, but that didn't make the pain hurt any less. What kind of evil twisted creature of darkness would possibly keep the two of the separated!? Noting but evil! Pure, unadulterated, EVIL!

"It'll be alright. I'll see you first thing at breakfast tomorrow, Nora." Ren promised.

Never mind! The evil god was understanding!

"Can we get to bed now?" Blake asked as she stretched her arms. "We got classes first thing in the morning you know."

"Awwww! Can't I make it a rule that we don't have to go to classes?" Ruby groaned, heading over to their room with Nora.

"Yeah, doesn't work like that." Weiss was still unable to comprehend how Ruby of all people became a leader at this point. "Anyway, we should turn in for the night too. Tomorrow we got classes, and we still need to organize the room."

*creeeak*

"After you, m'lady." Jaune bowed politely like a butler, gesturing into the room. Weiss simply rolled her eyes at this as she entered, Jaune being one of the few unfortunate events of today she would have to get used to. At least he had proper manners compared to most of the group, even if it was a means to either flirt or impress Weiss.

"Yeah, we better hit the sack. G'night Rubes." Yang waved as she turned in for the day. Ruby gave her a smiling nod as she returned the goodbye before exiting into the dorm for the night, Blake coming in alongside her with Pyrrha.

...

Ruby eyed the bedroom curiously. Right here she would be spending the next four years, or at least until she finished her mission, alongside her fellow friends and classmates. She had to admit, for an academy the room was far from what she expected. Then again, she's never even been to an academy before, much less seen what one looks like, so anything of the sort a new experience for her.

Within the room held all the basic and necessary amenities students would need for any form of academy, including several desk-like tables, one at each corner of the room alongside a simple bed with red woolen sheets. Along the opposite wall was a very large bay window, giving the girls a grand sight of the academy outside of the walls, from it's grand entrance all the way to the docks where the ships had landed earlier yesterday. In addition to this, there were two separate bathrooms, most likely for co-ed dorm rooms for students of the opposite sex to have their own private facility. Thankfully, seeing how the entirety of Ruby's team consisted entirely of girls, not only did this mean not waiting for two people to wash up at once, if they did that is, they could all get done at the same time to save on time.

It definitely didn't compare to the previous rooms Ruby's lived in for most of her life, but they weren't all that bad either. And best of all, she would be living with her sister for the foreseeable future!

"Hooftah! I'm beat." Nora stated, collapsing on her back on the bed.

"Hmhmhm, considering you were practically crying for the last hour, I'm not surprised." Pyrrha replied with a small chuckle.

"So this is what a dorm looks like..." Ruby muttered to herself, looking around the room, her words growing a curious expression on Pyrrha's face.

"Haven't you ever seen or heard of a dorm before, Ruby?" The red-headed warrior wondered.

"Heh, Ruby never really got out much in her childhood," Blake said as she stretched upon the bed, "so a lot of things are pretty new to her."

"Really? How much does she know?"

"Enough to know that I don't know how much." Ruby answered, sitting on her comfortable bed. "Occasionally when I went outside here and there, but that was only when Blake and I were together."

"Our families worked together with... with a business-sort of arrangement." Blake explained. "So usually once or twice a month, my family would let me come along with them overseas to play with Ruby while they discussed whatever they needed."

"Oh wow, that's interesting!" Pyrrha perked up. "Did you girls work with some sort of Dust company or something?" To her confusion, both Blake and Ruby shot each other a strange glance for a brief while before turning their heads away slightly nervous.

"Eh... I-It's complicated." Ruby replied. "Honestly, it's sorta hard to remember everything they did, it was so long ago."

"A few years back our families had a bit of an... disagreement, with one another. So this is actually the first time I've seen Ruby in nearly seven years." The Faunus added as she pulled up a pillow, laying it under her chest.

"Still sounds like you two had some good times." Nora commented, doing the same on her own bed in the far right corner. "Ren and I have a history together too, so we pretty much grew up together through the latter half of our lives."

"Yeah, well... Personally I would've preferred the latter half than the first." Ruby said with a small frown.

The frown she wore on her face was real, but not for the same reasons the Faunus girl initially believed. To her, she still hasn't gotten over or forgiven the fact Blake all but left her seven years ago without any reason or explanation whatsoever. Even if she did meet again after all this time, it didn't really make up for the hasty exit or disappearance on her end. It became more unbearable for cat girl when she later discovered that Ruby had been alone for all her life. She was alone for the last several years, possibly afraid, starving countless times. It was no wonder to her Ruby became strong enough to become a hunter, the poor girl had to learn to fend for herself in this harsh, unforgiving world.

What kind of big sister was she!

She could've at least dropped in from time to time or at the very very least call her, but no. Blake decided to break off all contact from Ruby from the very moment she abandoned her. No matter how many times she told herself it was just to keep Ruby safe, she would never be able to forgive herself. Each day was going to be a reminder to Blake that Ruby's current state was her own fault. She could've had a simple, normal, decent life, albeit somewhat questionable due to her family, yet even that probably would've been safer than the life of a Hunter!

As for Ruby, she was still saddened, but for reasons other than Blake's abandonment. Her guilt and grief stemmed from the giant lie she continued to put on in front of Blake, telling her how she was alone for all her life almost a year and a half after Blake left her. With each passing day that lie grew, the guilt Blake felt would only become worse and worse, and, in turn, Ruby's own regret would quickly follow. She couldn't afford to tell Blake anything else either, since she needed to keep her story on it's point through most of her time her. The more often she changed her story, the harder it was going to be to keep her lie under wrap, and the harder it became, the closer someone would've come to catch her in her lie.

It was a lie she was going to have to live with for the rest of her life, even after this was over.

"Ruby..." Blake muttered, If her ears weren't disguised as a bow, they would've drooped. .

"Like I said before Blake, it's fine! Really!" Ruby did her best to sound convincing. Just because she needed to keep on the lie didn't mean she couldn't try to ease Blake's guilt. "I almost never went hungry, I came across a lot of places to stay at on the road, and I even got to spend a holiday or two with people I stayed with!"

"You celebrated the holidays with random people?" Too little too late did Ruby come across her first mistake that Pyrrha pointed out. Of course they would want to know about anyone that allowed a complete stranger to come into their house to celebrate the holidays with them, it'd be weirder if they didn't ask her anything.

"Errr... Y-Yeah, I mean obviously!" She chuckled nervously as she shook her hands. "I mean, obviously only a few did, but you'd be surprised how many people let a homeless girl spend the holidays and events with them! So there's no problem or guilt you should feel, right Blake-!" The sight of her downtrodden friend burying her face into her pillow while a raincloud of sadness doused over her told her all she needed.

There was no amount of comfort to be found in the dark reaches of Blake's guilt.

"Mmhhhhh..."

"Eh heh... I-I think now would be a good time to get some sleep." Pyrrha suggested, trying her best to change the subject. "Can someone hit the lights?"

"Got it!" Nora cheered as she grabbed her hammer.

"Nonono! I don't mean-!"

 ***CRASH!***

 _*bzzzzzt*_

All four girls could only look upon the ceiling as their room was covered in darkness, half of them smiling, one of them feeling sweat dropping behind their head, and of them still being soaked by a never-ending torrent of Guilty Rain.

"...Never mind..."

The entirety of the second floor would find themselves without power for the next several days.

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 ** _A/N: Hey folks! Don't leave yet! Got another half below this author's note!_**

 ** _Hope this tiny interlude kept you occupied enough! And not to worry, I refuse to leave a fanfic chapter this short! Because of that, I thought of no better honor than revealing the (current) Winner of the Birthday Fanfic Contest, from THB4 ^_^! The contest will officially be over at the end of the week, so all late entries have till then to send or post anything of their work. I apologize again for the lack of updates recently, but, aside from the annoying neck aches I've been waking up with for the last several days my mother gave me her FREAKING ANNOYING COLD X(! So yeah, I feel like crap on my end. Hopefully it'll be gone in a week before I go on my vacation on Dec. 7th!_**

 ** _Till then, enjoy THB4's fun birthday-filled birthday fanfic ^^!_**

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Ruby was lying wide awake staring up at her ceiling count the many different moldings. Wolfie watched as her pup filled with anxiety over tomorrow. See normally her pup would be excited celebrating her birth due to the fire lady and living ice cream girl being home. Even her goddess seemed happy to celebrate her pup's birth. Wolfie left the room to bring back her pup a nice snack to help her fall asleep. But Wolfie had a feeling her pups worries came from the green temptress that the fire lady brought home.

Ruby didn't notice Wolfie leave the room. The reason Ruby was so excited and nervous was tomorrow on her 13th birthday an angel would be celebrating it with her. Ruby still remembers when her mother came home one day with two new siblings. The guy was boring but the girl made Ruby experience new feelings.

Ruby sighed to herself thinking of her nubbin dream girl. Emerald was beauty incarnate in Ruby's eyes and adorable as well how she acted around mom and granny Salem. Ruby always didn't know what her feelings for Emerald where until she talked with someone she trusted dearly Uncle Roman.

(Flashback)

What Ruby didn't know was how scared Roman was to answer Ruby about these new feelings for Emerald. Roman helped Ruby realize she is at that age that Emerald is her first crush. As Ruby left with her big sis to meet up with mom before going back to grannys house, Ruby thought she heard Roman laughing about a street rat that was going to be burned. Ruby just shrugged it off thinking some pests got in his new warehouse.

On the flight back to Salem's Ruby couldn't help but stare at Emerald. Ruby thought she was being sneaky watching Emerald that she didn't see her big sis and Mercury watching her. Neo had a annoyed look knowing it was going to be trouble and Mercury had a big smirk knowing it was going to end badly. Both teens knew of Ruby's crush and Emerald's crush on Cinder.

Neo thought Salem would say something but she seemed to have the same problem Neo did in not wanting to hurt Ruby's feelings. Neo still remembers the time Ruby was sick and Salem made Hazel, Watts and Tyrian dress like clowns to help cheer up Ruby. Neo loved showing them up by stealing the show and making Ruby laugh the hardest. Neo even got a small laugh out of Salem.

(Back in Ruby's room)

Ruby still couldn't believe Emerald said she would go to her birthday. In Ruby's mind she she thought it was because of how suave and super cool she was when she asked Emerald to come to her birthday party.

(In Emerald's Room)

Emerald was annoyed about everything like usual. But the person who had earned most of her ire was her boss's kid. She still remembers Ruby running up to her earlier that day then scream at her about coming to her birthday before disappearing in a cloud of rose petals. Emerald would have put the brat in her place if it wouldn't have pissed the goddess known as Cinder off. Emerald still remembers the team building day at the beach Cinder thought would help build trust with the new additions to her inner circle.

(Beach flashback)

Emerald almost fainted seeing Cinder in her sexy bikini. (In truth it was just a normal red bikini). Ruby looked proud standing with her mom watching Emerald get embarrassed. (Ruby believed that Emerald reacted like the looking at her). Mercury already miserable thanks to sand getting into his robotic legs. Roman and Neo were busy setting up all the supplies.

At the beach Cinder had the basic trust falls mixed with a beach cookout and other fun with her children. Cinder thought she was so clever with having a vacation under Salem's noise.

(End of Beach Flashback)

Emerald had wished it just been them out there mostly because that brat kept hanging around. Emerald wished she knew why she kept the brat around. Emerald heard how skilled the kid was but all she ever saw was a bumbling kid making many mistakes. Emerald is also slightly afraid of that grimm that follows the kid around like a pet. Emerald wondered if she would get a pet grimm and have Cinder pay attention to her.

(Cinder's Room)

Cinder sat on her bed with a huge smile on her face as she finished Ruby's present. It was a scaled down version of her dust infused dress for Ruby. Cinder had been so elated with that within this past year Ruby started to dress and cut her hair to look like just like her. Unknown to Cinder the real reason behind Ruby's new look was instead meant to copy Emerald who was the one copying Cinder.

Cinder had been slightly afraid ever since Ruby wanted to know more about her birth mother. Seeing Ruby go everywhere in that hood is a constant reminder to her that Ruby isn't a 100% her's. Cinder did a little digging and found out Ruby's dead mother used a scythe for her weapon. Now that's all Ruby wanted to learn how to use. Cinder knew it was important for Ruby to have this but she wished the dead woman would just leave her daughter alone already.

Cinder hopes also wished she knew what got her darling little gem so distracted lately. Come to think of it Ruby only started to act this way when Mercury and Emerald joined the family. It was if all the pieces fell together in Cinder's mind that her little Ruby has her first crush. Its why Ruby was imitating her to impress her crush with how mature and sexy Cinder was. Who else would Ruby imitate Neo, Salem, or Emerald. Neo looked like ice cream threw up on her and Salem was to doom and gloom for Ruby to pull of that look. There was Emerald but it was only recently that she started to dress better. Cinder knew who Ruby's crush was Mercury. Cinder knew she would have to have a talk with him about not doing any funny business with her daughter. Inside Cinder's mind she already planned on blast Mercury with a giant fire ball the second he did anything to Ruby.

(Ruby's birthday)

Ruby entered the great hall seeing it decorated to the nines for Ruby. A table stacked with presents and a giant cake covered in strawberries and chocolate chip cookies. But Ruby didn't care about any of that. Because what had her attention right now was Emerald in a emerald-green dress. Ruby got a small nose bleed as a perverted thought entered her head. Would it be okay if Ruby got to unwrap her?

Neo saw this and acted fast wiping away the blood. Neo was dreading Ruby growing up and wondered if Salem could use her powers to prevent Ruby going threw puberty. But she knew it was a impossibility. Neo lead Ruby away from Emerald to one of the games pin the tail on the Tyrian.

Salem had a pleased smile on her face watching her Ruby play her birthday games. Salem had a small laugh to herself thinking of Ruby as her own. It was laughable to think one of the silver eyed warriors who had been her enemies for years would be her beloved granddaughter. Cinder had been watching Ruby play with Neo.

About hour of games later it was time for cake. Ruby laughed as everyone sang "Happy birthday to you" Because Neo was holding up giant signs with the songs words on them. Ruby of course got the biggest piece of cake that had a icing flower on it using strawberry slices as petals. Ruby got to sit in her grandma's throne at the head of the table. Which Ruby only got to do on birthday's.

Ruby happily hummed as she eat her cake. It was times like this Ruby loved but a little sad uncle Roman couldn't make it thanks to work. Someone had to make sure the henchmen stayed in line don't want a repeat of 3 years ago when the white fang stole everything from them. Ruby puffed out her cheeks thinking about those meanies. Cinder couldn't help but get a pic of her pouting daughter. It was two cute and it's not like she is keeping a scrapbook with Neo's help of all Ruby's cute and big moments in her life.

After cake it was time to burn off all that sugar and play more games and do a little dancing. Ruby couldn't understand why Mom still made her do these boring dances she's 13 now and not some kid. But then Cinder would just hug her saying Ruby will be her baby girl forever. Ruby didn't hate dancing so much when she got to dance with Emerald. Ruby took a deep breath and all she could smell was cool mint. That had to be the best smell in the world Ruby thought. Emerald gagged in her head that little brat first made her dance with her and is now smelling her. The song wasn't over fast enough for Emerald but it was over too soon for Ruby.

It was now time for presents. First went mom who got her a nice dress. Cinder told her about how it has dust infused in it and later she will be training her how to use it. Ruby was beyond excited to learn how to play with fire like her mom and combine that with her speed she will be like a flaming rose comet. Ruby smirked thinking that meanie Ozpin better watch out because she will go after him for making Grandma sad.

Next was Granny Salem's present which was a chess set. Salem explained how this game will help her learn useful strategies that will help her in the future. Ruby couldn't wait to play this game with everyone. Then came Hazel's present some new weights to help Ruby build up her strength. Tyrian got Ruby a joke book and Watts made Ruby a video game. (Watts rigged the game so Ruby would always lose no matter what).

Then came Neo's present which was from her and uncle Roman. It was two things a book on the history of huntsmen's weapons and a weapon building kit for ages 13 and up. Ruby couldn't wait to start building all kinds of crazy weapons like a chainsaw shotgun or a boxing gloves with built in guns maybe even a sniper rifle scythe. Neo beamed a huge smile watching Ruby drool thinking about all the weapons she would make. Watts left eye twitched knowing Salem would order him to help the little brat.

Next came Emerald's gift which was a simple green stuffed rabbit. In truth Emerald stole it from a toy store because she didn't want to put any real effort into the gift. But to Ruby it was the best stuffed rabbit in the whole world because it was from Emerald. Ruby ran up to give her the biggest hug she could muster. After getting out of Ruby's clutches she left to go get some more punch.

Granny Salem went to go talk to Watts about helping Ruby build her weapons without anything bad happening to the girl. Cinder went to call Roman to tell him Ruby loved his and Neo's gifts. Tyrian went to glare at the game pin the tail on the Tyrian. He put up with it because his queen loved it and it made the little princess happy.

While no one was looking Mercury gave Ruby his present. Ruby opened up the simple package to find some green underwear. They didn't look like they would fit her or that they would cover much. Mercury whispered into Ruby's ear that they were Emeralds. Ruby doesn't remember anything else after passing out from a nosebleed. But she thought she heard Emerald scream "Is that my thong!"

Ruby also thought she saw Neo beating Mercury with her parasol as Wolfie carried Ruby to bed. Luckily Salem or Cinder didn't see any of this. Emerald thought Mercury was trying to ruin her chances with Cinder with that stunt. While Neo knew what he was really doing. Neo held up a sign that said "What made you think that was a good idea". Neo then hit Mercury with her sign but when she pulled back the sign it said "She is 13. Thats ten years too early for carp like that." Neo hit Mercury again with the sign and when she pulled it back and said, "If Cinder or Salem saw what you did. Then you would ether be a pile of ash or Grimm food". Neo hit Mercury again and pulled back again with the sign saying, "Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

Mercury looked up and asked how are you doing that with the sign. Neo hits him again and this time the sign says "Trade secret". With a big smiley face on it.

(Ruby's room)

Ruby woke up to see Cinder putting all her gifts away. Cinder turned to her daughter and said, "You sure had a big day today my little rose". Ruby smiled and happily nodded saying it was the bestest birthday ever.

Cinder walked over to Ruby to kiss her on her forehead and give her new rabbit to sleep with. "Goodnight my sweet little gem and have pleasant dreams" Cinder said as she left the room. Wolfie smiled watching her pup finally rest peacefully as she took up her nightly duty in keeping her safe. Even if Wolfie knew no one would ever hurt her pup in her Goddesses domain. Ruby smiled happily in her sleep hugging the stuffed toy close think who says the number 13 was unlucky. Today had to been ber luckiest day ever.

The end

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 _ **A/N: That concludes this verily late update! Sorry again for those waiting till no end, but be prepared to wait longer. If this stupid sore throat doesn't kill me, the back pain will q_p...**_

 _ **In the meantime, as a reminder, everyone who's late for the birthday fanfic contest can still enter between now and Sunday. Saturday is the last day I'll allow for any possible entries, unless you're really close and just need an extra hour or two, but nothing passed Sunday, no compromise. Again, the above birthday Fic was the entry from THB4, so hopefully you all enjoyed it like I did ^^.**_

 _ **Hope you enjoyed this update, and hope this freaking retarded cold/sore throat is gone before I stab my throat with a rusty knife cause it's ANNOYING AS HELL X(!...**_

 _ **Leave a like, fav, and review if you enjoyed, and hope to see you soon ^^!**_


	32. V1 Ep 9: The Badge And The Burden Part 1

_**A/N: Just at the 6k marker Pre-A/N ^^! I'm back folks, at least for the time being before I go on vacation Thursday. Hooftah, I gotta tell ya folks, being sick sucks X/ It wasn't enough to have a cold, I had a sore throat that made it hurt to freaking SWALLOW anything for the better portion of last week, alongside everything else from last week X/.**_

 _ **I'd like to give big shootouts and cheers to everyone who's helped keep me on my feet and motivated me to keep pushing forward. Your praises haven't gone unheard of, so I hope the first part of the next 2-part episode is to your liking! And if not!... just remember I was writing this during my week of being bedridden with a flu, so I ain't taking any crap about it sucking X/...**_

 _ **Enjoy ^_^!**_

 _ **...**_

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 _ **...**_

 ** _~This will be the day we waited for~_**

 _Cinder and salem are seen standing on a balcony on the side of the latter's home looking out in the distance to where Vale would be. As they look up to a Nevermore flying overhead, the camera pans up as well, showing an orange sky that slowly turns blue._

 ** _~This will be the day we open up the door~_**

 _Returning back down from its view of the sky, we see Ruby opening the door to Beacon's main hall, Wolfie peaking out behind her, Blake standing next to her, oblivious to the Grimm's presence._

 ** _~I don't wanna hear your absolution~_**

 _The Camera 'flies' through the hallways until it settles on Ozpin going through illegible notes on his scroll next to a photo of young miss Fall._

 ** _~Hope your ready for a revolution~_**

 _Outside his window, WYJR can be seen standing together. As the screen is overtaken by a storm of white petals, Weiss pushes Jaune a bit away._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of new solutions~_**

 _One of the petals remain before a black background and is revealed to be Ruby as she pulls out [insert weapon name] and starts twirling her Scythe around, leaving a burning crimson Halo above herself._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of blood evolution~_**

 _The red halo turns into Wolfie's red Iris as the camera zooms out revealing the pool of blood beneath the Grimm. before he dissolves into a shadow and to the side._

 ** _~In time your heart will open minds~_**

 _The shadow flows beneath Ruby cloak who is standing with her team, a conflicted expression on her face. Soon though it is replaced with a look of determination as the Camera pans once more._

 ** _~A Story will be told~_**

 _When the camera settles on Ruby's viewpoint we see Amber kneeling before Cinder, before the camera zooms back and her surroundings turn into the vault beneath Beacon._

 ** _~And Victory is in a Simple Soul~_**

 _We see a final shot of a young Ruby hugging her family, which reveals itself to be an old picture in Salem's Hand who is enjoying tea served by Neo._

Beacon Academy, one of the greatest schools within all of Remnant.

A place for young minds to hone their skills against the dreaded evils of this world, the most notable of them being the infamous Grimm. These creatures were nothing more than beings of pure darkness, monsters without a soul. They ravaged the land across all four directions of the world, with nothing more to gain than to consume any and all life they came across.

At first, Man had the power of Dust at it's disposal. With it, they could transform it into anything they desired, anything they needed in forms of energy, heat, lightning, and so forth. It was one of the greatest weapons they had to combat against the evil creatures of dark, manipulating it into powerful tools and weapons against the beasts. And for awhile, it appeared to be the answers to their conflict.

But over time, the Grimm began to adapt. Whether it was simply from living for such long lives, or Grimm having seen countless battles across the globe, the creatures began to grow as much as the humans did. They became faster, stronger, some even gaining a form of intelligence over the years of countless conflict. Just like the humans adapted to the use of dust, the creatures began adapting to their weapons, growing resilience and more strategic, some of them even forming packs together to combat these dangerous weapons.

Thus, the humans were forced to create a new weapon, one that could always adapt to the presence of the Grimm and grow along with the rest of Humanity. And that weapon, were the Hunters and Huntress people see today. They were among the deadliest people ever created within the world, their skills being perfected through the ages even as the Grimm tried to adapt. Every year, a new batch of licensed Hunters and Huntresses would graduate alongside friends and loved ones, their unique semblances giving humanity the tipping point it needed to finally combat against the creatures of darkness, and drive Humanity through it's struggles at long last.

And that is where the Academies came in, one where a certain Weiss Schnee found herself awakening in.

The academies were the best of the best, Beacon being one of the most infamous of the four top Hunting Academies across all of Remnant, and the icon of Vale itself. Here, many of the best young students of the world were currently enrolled like herself, with yesterday being the grand initiation test that found her not only on a team of four students, but the leader of said team as well.

As it should!

Whether or not she got everyone she wanted on that team, as well as some people she would've preferred not being on the team, she was still proud to find herself the leader of Team WYJR [Wire]. With the members consisting of Yang Xiao Long, Lei Ren, Jaune Arc, and herself, she could tell there was going to be some intense training needed for the four of them to work in tandem.

Weiss herself was gifted in many fields, the most useful of them being strategy, tactic, and intelligence. Adding this to her semblance which granted her access to a vast variety of glyphs, and she was capable of pulling herself and others out of many different situations. Yang was without a doubt the powerhouse of the four, being the strongest physically out of the group with her semblance only enhancing everything that made her a living weapon.

Jaune was someone she would need to get used to. He was definitely more focused on getting closer to Weiss than anything else, always flaunting and flexing in front of her just trying to show off, but she couldn't deny he still had the right determination needed, going through anything he could to prove his worth despite his lack of experience. And then there was Ren, one of the more quiet ones of the group. He was definitely the most disciplined, perhaps almost as much as Weiss herself could see, and always took things in a calm and clear manner even when fighting his opponents. Mixed together with his quick speed and reflexes, and he was definitely a formidable fighter.

It was just like Ozpin told her and the others yesterday; alone, they did display their own sense of quality, balance, and promise. But once Weiss had a better grasp on how to utilize each of their gifts, strengths, and weaknesses, she knew they could be the best team within Beacon for years to come, perhaps even the best in the world! And thanks to Beacon, she knew she was going to prove her team as one of the greatest in history.

And nothing, was going to get in her way!

 _*Tweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!*_

"Wahhh-!"

"Whoooa-!" Jaune yelped after Weiss, the blonde himself falling out of his bed from sheer fright. While their reactions weren't as startled as the first two, both Yang and Ren rose from slumber, Yang rubbing her eyes with her knuckles as Ren simply pinched the sleepies between his eyes.

"What was that?" Weiss questioned, looking around the room.

"I think it came from across the hall..." Ren replied, rubbing his ringing ears.

"Across the...Ugggghhhhh!" Weiss groaned to herself as she marched to the door.

Of course, there was that one complication. That one minor thing that proved to be the biggest nuisance of all. That one special person who's made every turn of Weiss' life here more and more difficult with each passing hour.

 _*knock*_

 _*knock*_

 _*knock*_

"Ruby!" Weiss called after banging on her team's door.

Ruby Fall. The one girl who irritated Weiss to no end.

It wasn't enough that she made her life more annoying with every sentence she uttered. It wasn't enough that she ended up not only being a part of Pyrrha's team, the one person she herself wished to be on given how refined and skillful someone like Pyrrha was, something Ruby didn't even comprehend compared to the fact Pyrrha was the face of her favorite cereal. And it wasn't enough that she, out of the literal hundreds of different rooms across all of Beacon, was right across the hall from her own room which she considered sanctuary. This was all she could tolerate just barely reaching her limit.

What she couldn't fathom was the fact that Ruby, this girl, this hyperactive energetic girl who comes from who knows where and who knows what, came to this school, not only took the only partner Weiss ever wanted on her team, but is also a Team leader of all things.

Just. Like. Her!

Scratch that, she's nothing like her. Weiss saw herself as the embodiment of what every team leader needs to be! She was classy, she was well-mannered, to some extent at least, she was noble, she was well educated, she was well-versed in an array of knowledgeable details, she had plenty of combat practice, and she was a Schnee. Just one of those qualities alone made Weiss see herself as a capable leader, none of which Ruby had.

What did Ruby have? She had way too many social issues, she comes from who knows where, was only accepted due to her stopping a robbery of all things, nearly incinerated the entire cliffside from her reckless use of dust, which was her only method of killing the Nevermore and Death Stalker that got her the team leader position, and just from looking at her alone, she didn't know squat! She didn't care if Ruby was possibly 'gifted' seeing how she was being enrolled from Beacon two years earlier than most schools usually allowed, she was nothing short of an embarrassment to all things that made a Hunter and Huntress respectable.

And you know what made those kinds of people worse than other people just like them? They were completely unaware of their qualities and personal issues! At least when it came to others who were aware of it, that either meant they were just jerks or morons who liked treating others like this without caring for other people, or on a brighter side they were aware of things and were still trying to better themselves. Others like Ruby though were just plain annoying! People like her completely unaware of how they were acting and having little to no idea how big of an impact someone like themselves would have on the future of the world!

Even now, all she could hear was high pitched noises that sounded like drills and hammers pounding around within the confines of the girl's dorm room. The brief moment Weiss had to consider how someone wouldn't be aware of how much noise they were causing was quickly shut off as soon as she put the name 'Ruby' into the equation.

 _*knock*_

 _*knock*_

 _*knock*_

"Hey! Ruby!" Weiss grumbled again. This time, the ruckus and rampage taking place within the bedroom finally started to die down, the sound of footsteps approaching towards the door before it opened.

"Huh? Oh, morning Weiss!" Ruby greeted with her typical smile. She was wearing her new school uniform as they were expected to, with her white cloak still attached to it from the back. "What's up?"

"What's 'up'?" Weiss groaned. "You guys, that's what. What's with all the noise?"

"Noise?... Oh!" Ruby looked back into the bedroom with excitement. "We finally finished decorating the room! Tadaaaaa!" As she gestured into the room triumphantly, Weiss could only blink at the trainwreck of a room.

Having decided to finish setting up the dorm at long last, the group that made team RBPN [Ruben] smiled with satisfaction at results. They had numerous posters of their own personal interests on several walls, they lined up two desks on each side of the room where there was plenty of space, one set right next to the entrance itself, and in the back under the large windows was a nice and ample supply of books and magazines for the girls based on their personal interests. On a whole, the entire place wasn't exactly bad, but the real thing that stood out amongst the rest of the dorm room were the makeshift bunkbeds standing in the middle of the room.

And they were by every definition of the word, "makeshift". Obviously not being able to bring bunk beds in themselves, they decided to take it upon themselves to make their own bunk beds out of the four beds they already had. The left bunk bed had ropes tied to the ceiling connecting to the legs of one bed, being carefully suspended above the bed below it. As for the bed on the right, it was being propped up from the legs of it by dozens of books placed carefully underneath each of the legs, suspended above a bed too.

Neither of the beds looked particularly safe to the heiress, each of them looking like nothing more than a deathtrap for whoever had to sleep on the bottom bunk and maybe the top bunk. But at the very least, it did provide plenty of space for the rest of the room they needed.

"Nora Valkyrie, part time Huntress, part time carpenter!" Nora cheered proudly, twirling her hammer.

"I'm not entirely sure it makes you a carpenter if you just move the beds instead of making them from scratch..." Blake commented.

"It was all Ruby's idea," Pyrrha said as she greeted Weiss by the door, " to help save space."

"Not bad thinking there, eh L.P.?" Ruby chuckled out as she held out a hand for Weiss to high five.

"L.P.?" Weiss repeated.

"Leader-Partner!" She clarified, still sticking her hand up.

"Don't remind me..." Weiss grumbled to herself. Ruby's energetic and excited mood was slowly dwindled down to a disappointing look of sorrow as Weiss simply marched back to her room from that spot. She didn't understand what Weiss had against her so much. She seemed nice, colorful, considerate, all the qualities that someone like Ruby would want in a friend. So why wasn't Weiss feeling the same way?

Seeing the frown growing upon their leader's face, Pyrrha just gave her a small smile as she pat her shoulder. "It's alright Ruby, just give her some time."

 ** _*WHAM*_**

Both girls nearly jumped at the sound of the Weiss slamming the door to her own dorm shut.

"A lot of time..."

...

...

"Monsters! Demons! Prowlers of the night. Yes, the creatures of grimm have many names." The instructor, referred to as Professor Port by the students, spoke before the students.

It had been a bit of a rushed morning for Team RBPN, the girls barely making it to class on time at the very last minute for their first day of school. Luckily for the majority of them, they found that they shared a few classes with one another, and at least one class with at least one other person on the team, not to mention any members of Team WYJR they wanted to socialize with. To be fair, Team WYJR only beat them by several additional minutes, only finding out beforehand that all the alarm clocks in their room went out at the same time due to some mysterious power outage that happened during the night.

At the current time, the students found themselves in the presence of Professor Port's Hunting and Grimm Survival lessons, learning the many aspects of the Grimm themselves including their strengths, weaknesses, powers, and so forth, and it was one particular class Ruby felt herself confident enough with. After all, how couldn't she be excited for a class she was already prepared for? She learned a great number of things growing up alongside them for the last several years, so anything in this class was going to be a breeze!

As for the students themselves, of the students that were known thus far, they were spread across the room sitting with their preferred classmates, all except for Weiss who was one Blake and Ruby away from sitting next to Pyrrha. Ren found his arm suffocating from the lack of oxygen thanks to Nora's unyielding strength that refused to let go of his arm, the poor girl refusing to budge even slightly from her spot next to Ren. Yang herself was a bit bummed out she couldn't grab a spot near Ruby for the class period, but was more than content with finding herself just one seat below her, her exceptional height making any chat with her easy with the turn of her head.

Provided she did it when Port wasn't looking of course.

Jaune was the only one to find himself a little disappointed with his arrangement. On a bright side, he did manage to get a seat directly above Weiss, but considering she had little interest with socializing with him compared to Pyrrha, she wasn't going to take any time to keep looking back to chat with him, and it would be more obvious he wasn't paying attention if he kept trying to grab hers during class.

Oh well, maybe next time.

"But I, merely refer to them as prey... Heh heh..." Nobody was aware of his sad attempt at humor, the professor being the only one to chuckle from his own joke. "Uhh, and you shall too upon graduating from this prestigious academy. Now as I was saying, Vale, as well as the other three kingdoms, are safe havens in an otherwise treacherous world. Our planet is absolutely teeming with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces. And that's where we come in."

"Huntsman! Huntresses! Individuals who have sworn to protect those who can not protect themselves. From what you may ask? Why, the very world! That is what you are training to become. But first, a story. A tale of a young handsome, man. Me."

"I thought he said a handsome young man..." Blake whispered to Ruby, the dark-haired girl barely able to stifle the chuckle that escaped her lips.

At the time, Weiss was doing everything in her power to completely ignore them, more specifically Ruby. She needed to pay attention. She needed to do everything to show herself as a proper student. She needed to keep track of every little detail ever given to her no matter how arduous or mundane the teachings were! Why? So she didn't end up looking as bad as Ruby did, that's why!

As much as it pained her to say, Ruby being a team leader meant that now she was a prime example of what Beacon had to offer, an example of what everyone would see the Hunters and Huntresses as for the foreseeable future. And there was no way she was ever going to show themselves in a good light, not if the behavior she's been displaying since the start of this school year had told her. She was too carefree, she was too lax on her teammates no matter what they did, she didn't even seem the least bit interested in anything Port was teaching. All she could do was doodle in her notebook making random caricatures of Professor Port, the current one being a rendition of him as a pig man.

"Despite smelling of cabbages, my grandfather was a wise man." Port continued, going into length and detail between facts that were and weren't important.

"Keh heheh..." How the heck were Pyrrha and Blake able to pay attention so casually while Ruby chuckled loud enough for Weiss herself to hear?! Look at her! She was just doodling another picture of Port without a care in the world, and even worse, Pyrrha took notice of it and, instead of ignoring it like the proper lady Weiss knew her to be, she just put her knuckles to her mouth to hold in a small giggle.

Good god it was contagious!

"Eh hem!" Port coughed audibly, grabbing the students' attention once more. Weiss felt nothing but shame at the fact her head was one of the few to turn from the distraction. "In the end, the beowulf was no match for my sheer tenacity. And I returned to my village with the beast in captivity and my head held high. Celebrated, as a hero." He bowed.

A hero? Yeah, that about summed up what Huntsman and Huntresses were supposed to be. And now, Ruby was a part of the ladder that would see the Hunters climb through the pages of history, a book that would no doubt fall apart at the seams now. And each and every second that passed, these thoughts continued to repeat without end in Weiss' mind, the loop getting louder and louder as more details were getting added to it. Every word he was about to say was everything Ruby supposedly was.

"The moral of the story? A true huntsman must be honorable."

And there was Ruby, balancing a notebook and apple atop a pencil.

"A true Huntsman must be dependable."

And there was Ruby, falling asleep again.

"A true huntsman must be strategic... well-educated... and wise!"

And there was Ruby RUBY RUBY!

"So, who among you believe themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?"

"IDOSIR!" Weiss yelped, practically shooting out of her desk with her hand held high. She was completely unaware of the sudden scene she made, many curious eyes looking at the suddenly-hyper girl.

"Well then, let's find out!" Port replied with intrigue as he rubbed his mustache. "Step forth, and face your opponent." He proclaimed, gesturing to the cage where a menacing growl was originating from. Many students could tell, if not by the appearance within the pitch black cage then by the light of it's blood-glowing eyes, that it was the very creature that was a menace to this world.

It was a Grimm.

Despite the rumbling and the roaring, Weiss only smirked to herself as she walked around the desks, marching herself down the steps with her weapon at the ready. Perhaps at the very least, she could prove herself as the actual role model for this academy. Someone with class, elegance, finesse, everything that nobody would get if they ever looked to Ruby. Who knows? Maybe if she was really lucky, no matter how implausible it might sound, Ruby would actually learn a thing or two from watching her.

"Go Weiss!" Yang cheered, her teammates following suit.

"Stay focused." Ren reminded as he smiled at the scene. He was curious to see both, what their leader could do, and what sort of Grimm awaited her.

"Good luck, my snow angel!" It was too easy to ignore Jaune at this point.

"Yeah, go Weiss!" She didn't think it was possible, but Ruby's input was actually more annoying than Jaune's of all people. "Represent Team-!... Why...ehhh... What was your team name again?"

"Ghhhh Ruby! I'm trying to pay attention!" Weiss yelped, never taking her focus off the cage.

"Sorry..." Ruby mumbled, slumping a little in her chair. Already Blake was annoyed with Weiss. Practically the first thing Ruby said to her all day and the Schnee girl simply snaps at her.

Just like the Schnees she knew.

"Alright," the Professor spoke again as he steadied his weapon, "let the match...BEGIN!" With one mighty swing, he bashed away the large lock of the cage, everyone watching as the creature exited from it without any sign of fear.

"It's a Boarbatusk!" Ruby instantly recognized the creature just from mere glance, being one of the more funny-looking creatures she's seen growing up with in the last five years.

"Ah, very perceptive, Ms. Fall." Port had to hand it to her. It was rather impressive that in less than a second, Ruby would know what the creature was as well as the correct name for it.

And all it did was flare up Weiss' anger more. She already took the position of Leader from her team with Pyrrha, she already took Pyrrha from her team entirely, but the very LAST thing she would ever tolerate was Ruby taking away the teachers of all people! They were the very last ounce of decency this school had, and once Ruby had them under her thumb, the entire academy itself could only go down hill!

Or maybe she was just overthinking this?

 ** _*wheeeeeeeeeeee*_**

 _*clang!*_

Yup, she was definitely overthinking things.

"Ho ho, weren't expecting that now, were you?" Port commented as he observed.

She was so distracted by this little detail that she barely had time to dodge to the side of the charging boar's tackle, striking the beast as hard as she could to the side. That only brought a recollection of de sha vue from her fight with the Death Stalker earlier. The familiar clang of the steel scraping against the incredibly thick armor of the beast's hide was almost identical to the Death Stalker's own carapace. At least with this one, the beast had numerous open spots that left it exposed, but it would've taken a very precise and careful strike to hit any one of those places, and something told her little miss piggy wasn't going to sit around for her to kill it.

All she cared about at this point though was showing it, as well as the rest of the students, what she was capable of. Never taking her eyes off focus, just like her opponent, Weiss charged weapon first into the great beast, taking careful aim as she tried to zero in on one of it's eyes. Unfortunately, she was unprepared for the side-swipe it heaved with it's ramming tusks, actually flipping the girl to it's side briefly before locking her weapon between the front and back of it's tusks. Now on top of wrestling with the beast's strength, she needed pry the rapier out of the beast's grip!

"Bold, new approach. I like it!" He complimented, much to her pleasure. As long as someone dignified was taking notice of her skills, that meant there were less people paying attention to anything considered skill of Ruby's. She did at least wish it wasn't during a time of crisis like this where a Schnee family member was actually wrestling a pig.

"C'mon Weiss, show it who's boss!" Ruby cheered again.

"Grrr do you mi-!" Weiss' brief distraction as all it took for the beast to suddenly pull the rapier out of the Schnee girl's hand, flinging it behind itself.

 ** _*WHAM!*_**

"Gah-!" Weiss let out a yelp as she was suddenly tackled away from the beast, now separating Weiss from her weapon on opposite ends of the room.

"Oho, what will you do now without your weapon?" The grown Hunter asked aloud.

She didn't need to answer that question, not that she was given much time to anyway. The moment she looked up once more, she quickly dodged to the side as the beast came ramming into her, dodging it by mere inches as it crashed into the sturdy desk surrounding the classroom's lower floor. While this might've been the perfect time for anyone to kill the beast with it's exposed belly, it also proved to be the worst time to be without a weapon. The young Hunter had no choice but to run away from the creature as she scrambled to retrieve her weapon once more, sliding across the ground as she did and faced the creature's direction.

"Weiss, go for it's belly!" Ruby instructed. "Boarbatusk bellies are completely exposed, so-!"

"Stop telling me what to do!" Weiss yelled, Ruby nearly jumping from bark.

Turning towards the creature once more, both students and teacher watched in curiosity as the beast began spinning rapidly in place, crumbles of dusts and dirt scraping against the ground heavily as the beast undoubtedly began it's final charge. That was all Weiss needed to see the end of this fight. With two Glyphs grown from the air, one standing tall before her and one above behind her, she waited for the creature to strike the Glyph wall, the wall too powerful for the Grimm to overcome as it crashed to it's side once again. And with a simple flip behind her, she launched herself from the above glyph, shooting herself weapon-first into the beast's stomach with more than enough force to put it down for good.

At long last, Weiss had finally won. It was exhausted, and definitely annoying in some ways, but she had finally won.

"Bravo. Braaa-vo!" Port cheered. Weiss couldn't help but smile a little as the rest of the room erupted in fits of applause here and there, her teammates more than excited for her accomplishment, and rest of team RBPN showing no issue with the congratulations. "It would appear we are indeed in the presence of a true huntress in training." As happy as the praise and applause were, she just couldn't get that annoying sound of Ruby's voice out of her head right now. Every word she said, every praise and cheer she tried to give, she didn't hear any of that. All she heard were the whines and chuckles of a girl who still didn't have a decent grasp on what it meant to not only be a Huntress, but a team leader as well!

"I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today." Port informed, much to Nora's and Yang's disappointment. Both girls were energetic and excited at the thought of bashing around a few Grimm themselves. "Be sure to cover the assigned readings, and stay vigilant!" With that, the students gathered their belongings as many of them traveled towards the door, both familiar teams being the only ones to gather alongside Weiss with excitement.

"Yeah, that's what I'm talking about!" Jaune cheered. What else could he possibly expect from his beloved snow angel?

"Yaaaa, that was awesome!" Nora cheered, pumping both her fists in the air. "You were all like "Rawwwwwww!", and he was all like "Graahhh!" and you were like, "Ker-pow"!" She roared, punching her fist to the side.

 _*whap!*_

"Ouch!" Ren yelped, rubbing her slightly bruised

"Sorry..."

"That was truly a marvelous display." Pyrrha complimented. Ah, how her words were like heaven to her ears. Out of all the praise, to be praised by one of the most influential and talented students of the group was truly a blessing.

"Yeah, way to go Weiss!" And just like that, Ruby somehow made everything sound so suddenly depressing or pointless. It was almost like magic, that's how talented Weiss saw her as.

'Egh..." She grumbled, walking off passed the group.

Not one of them were unaware of Weiss' reason for the sudden walk-off, but none of them could figure out why. They were all gathering and complimenting her, all praising her for all her hard work, Ruby comes in and praises her work too, and then Weiss takes off and leaves. Was there something missing here that they couldn't see? Ruby herself was completely aware of the girl's apparent rejection of her, but like all the others around her, she couldn't begin to comprehend why.

"Weiss? Hey Weiss, wait!" Ruby called out running after her.

"Ruby-!" Blake tried to call after, only for her to be held back by Pyrrha.

"Maybe we should let them sort it out." She suggested.

"Sorta what out?" Yang's confusion was shared with the rest of them. "I don't understand what the problem is at all."

"I know, but..." Pyrrha glanced at the remaining friends. "I've seen this sorta issue before. It's best to leave it between them or else we all might start snapping at each other..."

...

"Weiss wait!" Ruby called after again as she finally caught up to Weiss.

"Guuuh, what do you want?" Weiss grumbled. "I'm going to be late to my next class."

"I just... I just wanna know what's wrong with you-"

"Nothing is wrong with me, it's you I have the problem with!" She revealed.

"Me?" She's barely known her for a day, and had only like twenty sentences with the girl since they first met. "What did I do?"

"Everything, that's what. You've been a thorn to me since we've met, you took my preferred teammate off my hands-"

"Look, if this is about Pyrrha, I'm sorry but-"

"You think this is only about Pyrrha?" She's had enough of it. If she was going to tell her everything that was wrong, then she was going to tell her EVERYTHING. "My real problem here is you Ruby, and you alone. From this day forward, for the rest of your life, every single thing you do at this academy is going to be a reflection on every Hunter in the world! From how you sleep and eat, to the lessons you study and the grades you get, every person in the world will be looking up at you and say to themselves "gee, are all Hunters just like her?", and then scoff at the very idea of it!"

"What..." How was se supposed to respond to any of this? She's never been so insulted yet confused before about what she assumed were insults. "How am I... Huh?"

"That's exactly my point! The fact that you're a team leader, the fact that you're a leader at all already puts a huge responsibility on yourself along with the rest of your team! When it comes to battles, they'll be looking for guidance, suggestions, and any trouble they get in, any injuries they suffer as a result of it, will be on you. On top of that, anything you do for this academy, do for this world, will also be a reflection of Hunters as a whole, and it'll be all on you because you're the one who people are supposed to call "leader"."

"I didn't ask to become a leader, Weiss." Ruby tried to insist. She still couldn't comprehend the idea that she became a leader either, but she wasn't as hard on herself about it. "I don't even get why that's such a big deal to you. Besides, if we're both leaders, then that makes us equals too, right?"

"Equals..." That was the final straw. "Ruby, I want to make this perfectly clear: We. Will never. Be. Equals. And as soon as any of the teachers realize that, maybe Ozpin will realize his mistake." With that, she turned herself away as she marched down the halls, refusing to let this chat eat up the remaining time she had to get to her next class.

All that left was a depressed Ruby who simply moaned to herself, pulling the hood over her eyes as she did. Her grandmother was right, Hunters were a scary bunch. It only took meeting one of the lot face-to-face for the first time to understand that. Weiss didn't seem to have any sympathy in her, she didn't seem to have any compassion. She just seemed to be a girl whose priorities were proving herself to be the best of the best, and because of Ruby's mere existence, she already had this deep seething hatred for the white-hooded girl.

In all fairness, part of what she said was true. She wasn't here to learn how to be a Hunter like the rest of them, she was here to kill some maiden and complete her mission. So really, she shouldn't care about any of the matter, right? So then why did it hurt so much?

"I just wanna be friends..."

...

...

...

 ** _A/N: Hooftah, hope this is a good chunk after a long wait guys ^^ I wrote this over the course of my sick-week, getting as much done as I could day-by-day. To be honest, the first part of episode 9 was a little iffy for me, kept struggling with roadblocks and where to go with it. Eventually I decided on this. Don't worry, i know it delves into part of episode 9 part 2, but there's a reason as well as something else that will fill up the remainder of the much longer following chapter ^^._**

 ** _Also hope I didn't make Weiss look tooooo mean spirited. Gotta remember, the first half of season 1, she waaaaassss kinda borderline *witch* if you catch my drift. Don't worry, she'll warm up XP_**

 ** _Once again, thanks for all the feedback and encouragement folks! Hoping to get a large chunk of work done by tomorrow, and hopefully have part 2 done at all before i go to Vegas for a week :P!_**


	33. V1 Ep10: The Badge And The Burden Part 2

**_A/N: And a nice 7k Pre-A/N too! I think I recovered pretty well from my stupor of sickness pretty well, promising each of you I'll be back at my a-game in no time and ready to post chapters as daily as I used to!... How hopefully this chapter ties you over for the next week while I'm in Vegas ^^._**

 ** _Enjoy!_**

 ** _..._**

 ** _..._**

 ** _..._**

 ** _~This will be the day we waited for~_**

 _Cinder and salem are seen standing on a balcony on the side of the latter's home looking out in the distance to where Vale would be. As they look up to a Nevermore flying overhead, the camera pans up as well, showing an orange sky that slowly turns blue._

 ** _~This will be the day we open up the door~_**

 _Returning back down from its view of the sky, we see Ruby opening the door to Beacon's main hall, Wolfie peaking out behind her, Blake standing next to her, oblivious to the Grimm's presence._

 ** _~I don't wanna hear your absolution~_**

 _The Camera 'flies' through the hallways until it settles on Ozpin going through illegible notes on his scroll next to a photo of young miss Fall._

 ** _~Hope your ready for a revolution~_**

 _Outside his window, WYJR can be seen standing together. As the screen is overtaken by a storm of white petals, Weiss pushes Jaune a bit away._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of new solutions~_**

 _One of the petals remain before a black background and is revealed to be Ruby as she pulls out [insert weapon name] and starts twirling her Scythe around, leaving a burning crimson Halo above herself._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of blood evolution~_**

 _The red halo turns into Wolfie's red Iris as the camera zooms out revealing the pool of blood beneath the Grimm. before he dissolves into a shadow and to the side._

 ** _~In time your heart will open minds~_**

 _The shadow flows beneath Ruby cloak who is standing with her team, a conflicted expression on her face. Soon though it is replaced with a look of determination as the Camera pans once more._

 ** _~A Story will be told~_**

 _When the camera settles on Ruby's viewpoint we see Amber kneeling before Cinder, before the camera zooms back and her surroundings turn into the vault beneath Beacon._

 ** _~And Victory is in a Simple Soul~_**

 _We see a final shot of a young Ruby hugging her family, which reveals itself to be an old picture in Salem's Hand who is enjoying tea served by Neo._

"Mmmh..." Ruby moaned to herself as she slouched on her bed in a slump.

Today had truly been an... interesting... day as leader of Team RBPN. For reasons completely unknown to her, reasons she couldn't contemplate or comprehend, the girl hated her. She was angered towards Ruby for reasons she couldn't figure out. At first she thought it was just jealousy for having Pyrrha on her team. While she didn't know exactly just how infamous Pyrrha was, she didn't understand why Weiss would be so angry towards Ruby for it. Sure, maybe Ruby herself would've been mad if Blake ended up on her team too, but she wouldn't go off on her about how angry she was or snap at her for it.

And what did Weiss mean about the two of them being equals? Was she talking about her personal heritage? Sure, Ruby wasn't part of any famous or noble family, at least she didn't think she was, but clearly Weiss herself knew that so it wasn't a matter of heritage. Maybe Weiss was just jealous that Ruby was accepted here two years ahead of her own time? That did make a little sense, seeing how she was about fifteen years of age and Weiss was seventeen, but if Weiss was the noble heiress of the Schnee Dust Family Corporation, there was very little to be jealous of. How could you be jealous of anyone if your own family came from something so infamous? If anything, Ruby should've been the one jealous of her, and she wasn't.

Her feelings of guilt and despair weren't unnoticed by her faithful companion. Having these thoughts swirling around her head for nearly the last twenty minutes, Wolfie took it upon herself to pop out of her shadow, checking on her young pup. Thankfully, not only was she tall enough to just barely reach the ceiling when sitting, she didn't have to worry about any of her friends dropping in on her for the time being since they gathered at the school's library to work on homework. At the very least, she didn't need to worry about Wolfie being out for just a few minutes.

"Hrrrrnh..." The Wolf whined, laying down as it looked into Ruby's saddened eyes.

"Keep it down Wolfie, you don't wanna draw attention." Ruby mumbled.

"Hrrrrrnh." The wolf moaned again, licking Ruby's face in the hopes of cheering her up.

"Not now Wolfie, I'm not in a mood."

 _*slurp*_

"Wolfie, I said no!"

...

...

"Huh? Hey, you guys are here too?" Blake spoke up as she walked down the hall. To her surprise, she saw both Nora and Pyrrha gathered in the hallway before a door, the very same Blake was instructed to go to.

Today had been a bit unnerving for the two teams, Team WYJR and RBPN specifically. After the little disagreement with Weiss earlier in the hallway, the details of which the hooded girl kept to herself for the most part, both teams had been quiet to one another any time any of the members met up with one another in a different class, save for Nora who didn't seem to care to much any time she was in a class with Ren. It's not like they were uneasy with each other at the moment, they just didn't want to start any conversation that would possibly anger either team further. Weiss already had a personal issue with Ruby for some reason, the last thing they wanted was to have every member of each team biting each other's head off. And they did socialize a little bit here and there, but it was just quick and playful banter briefly here and there, nothing long like a conversation during any of their free time.

After the last few classes though, that was the least of things on the remaining members of Team RBPN's mind. For some strange reason, as they came across her during their own class periods, Ms. Goodwitch instructed each of the girls to come down to the classroom after they were finished for classes for the day. Since all students had a relatively similar schedule, she didn't need to worry about any of them having any time, not to mention the fact since it was the first day of school for most of them, they wouldn't have that much homework to get done with either.

That didn't help calm any of their tension though. For one thing, none of them were told any details in terms of why they were supposed to meet her here in the first place, only that none of them were to inform Ruby about it whatsoever. Whether they were to tell her some lie to get themselves away from her or make up some excuse as to why they didn't return to the dorms later on, all of them were strictly instructed not to say anything at all. At the same time, they knew whatever this was it had to be about Ruby, seeing how they were told not to tell her anything about this, and the nerves only wracked at them more since they knew there was some personal issue Weiss had with Ruby earlier in the halls this morning.

Did a fight break out? Did something happen during the school day between the two? Half of their classes didn't have her in one or the other for half the day, so there could've been any number of things that happened between then and now. And if something bad did suddenly happen between the two students, was it going to affect the rest of their teams later on?

All of their confusion and worries were put on hold at the sound of the door opening before them, Glynda standing on the other side as she greeted the trio.

"Ah, good, you're here." She welcomed. "Please come with me for a minute, we need to talk." The students looked at one another nervously as the teacher walked over to the table with the several chairs around it.

"What do you think this is about?" Pyrrha asked slightly worried.

"Don't worry you guys, just follow me lead." Nora cracked her knuckles as she walked in with them. "Whatever you do, don't crack under any pressure she pushes on you. Just follow my lead, and remain calm."

This was already off to a bad start.

One before the other, the students walked towards the table where a lone folder was placed next to Glynda herself. From the looks of it, the file appeared to be some sort of student profile, the fact only worrying them more at what it could possibly be. This was definitely for Ruby, and not one of them were prepared for the words about to be spoken.

"I'd like to thank you all for coming here today on short notice." Glynda said with a small nod. "I'd like to talk to you about a teammate of yours that's been troubling me lately-"

"ALRIGHT I CONFESS! I DID IT!" Nora cried loudly, slamming her head and arms on the table. "I'M THE ONE WHO ATE REN'S PANCAKES THIS MORNING AND THEN TOLD HIM PYRRHA DID IIIT!"

"You did what?!" Pyrrha gasped. All this time she thought the uneasy vibes Ren was giving her today was due to the argument Weiss had with Ruby this morning, thinking to herself whatever his unease was about it was related to Ruby and the rest of her team.

"THEY'RE JUST SO DELICIOUS, I'M SORRYYYYYYYYY!" Nora continued to cry loudly, making the situation awkward with every sprinkle of tear spraying from Nora's sobbing eyes.

"That's... ehh..." This conversation took a completely different turn than Glynda expected. "That's... not really what I was going to talk about..."

"Sniff...r-really?" Nora mumbled looking back, wiping her face dry of tears within seconds. "Oh, good... I was just kidding too...heh heh..." She could already feel the fire growing from Pyrrha's anger. She was going to have a lot of apologizing to do after this.

"Hmm... Well, as I was saying, I'd like to talk to you about one of your teammates." Glynda repeated, hoping to get to the actual point of this conversation.

"It's about Ruby, isn't it?" Blake guessed knowingly. There were too many signs to tell her it was about anyone else, save for maybe Weiss if Glynda was talking to both teams about the conversation this morning.

"That is correct." She confirmed adjusting her glasses. The students watched as she opened the folder with Ruby's name on it, looking curiously as it only contained a single picture of the girl smiling at the camera. "Do you know what this file is?"

"It's our student records, isn't it?" Pyrrha answered.

"Correct. This is all the details pertaining to a Ruby Fall." She paused as she pulled out another file from under the table, this one almost an inch thick of papers. "And this is what a normal file looks like in comparison." A strange aura of confusion was emanating from the three girls, a bizarre mixture of not knowing how to take this and not knowing where this conversation was heading.

"What is this about, Ms. Goodwitch?" Blake asked with a slight sense of worry. She was closer to the younger self-proclaimed sibling than the rest of them, so it was no surprise that she was the most worried of the three thus far.

"Well, to get to the point, it's about Ruby." She stated. "Tell me, do any of you know anything in particular about Ruby?"

"Not that I know of." The valkyrie shrugged. "She told us she spent the last several years living on her own but I think that's about it."

"Yeah, there's not much else we know about her aside from that." Pyrrha added. "She said she grew up alongside her mother for the first ten years, then something happened that separated her from her family since."

"I see. And you, miss Belladonna?" The teacher noticed a certain twinge in Blake's eyes, whether or not the Faunus herself was aware of it. There was something Blake knew she wasn't telling her, and judging by her person, she wasn't about to anytime soon.

"N-No, not much." Blake hesitated a little. "I-I mean I'm one of the first few she met since coming here, b-but there's not much else to say about her. She seems fine to me, maybe a little hyper at times."

"I see. And you're sure there's nothing else to say about her for now?" She tiny twitch Blake had in her palms didn't go unnoticed to the blonde witch herself, yet said nothing of the detail as Blake just shook her head. "Very well, then allow me to explain the issue at hand here. We have no records or data revolving around this Ruby Fall."

"...And?" For a second there, Pyrrha thought the issue would be more important than that. "It doesn't seem to be that big of an issue to me."

"I mean, we have zero records of her existence, period." She clarified, bringing Pyrrha to an understanding. "We have no birth records of her, no history about this girl, nor any details regarding her origin in any of the school archives within the other continents. It's like she doesn't even exist."

How on Remnant was that possible!? No matter who anyone was, there should've been the slightest detail regarding Ruby in any shape or form. Whether hospital records or logs from any of the other schools, some place in the world should've had information on Ruby. So how the heck was it possible that not one of those places, no school or institution within the world, had any knowledge on the existence of Ruby Fall herself?

"Do you mean... she's a ghost?!" Nora exclaimed, half scared and half excited at the thought of being friends with a ghost.

"I'm pretty sure it's not dire, Nora." Pyrrha said with a minor chuckle.

"Actually, she isn't that far off." Glynda retorted, sorting through the other file filled with pages. "No matter who the person is, we have details on everyone here. Whether it's something as simple as their name, to something mysterious such as their birth or origin, we have data in all formats. Ruby, however... we don't have a single sentence regarding her identity."

"How is that possible? If you have so many records of everything else, shouldn't it be hard for her to attend beacon without some form of identity?"

"Under normal circumstances yes, but Ozpin was taken in by her bravery and courage in apprehending a heist several days prior." She eyed the students curiously. "I trust most of you are aware of a Dust burglary that occurred in Vale, as well as the person who tried to stop it?"

"Yes. I assume that was Ruby's doing?" Pyrrha guessed. Out of the three, only Nora was the one in complete shock.

"She was?!" She couldn't believe it! Not only was her team leader a ghost, she was a hero ghost! This was awesome!

"Correct again. At the same time, that's all the details we know about Ruby, just from one evening's events."

"Then what does this have to do with Ruby?" Blake asked, feeling more and more timid as time went on. She needed to figure out what the situation was here, knowing about the "questionable family" she came from, not knowing just how questionable they truly were.

"Well, that is the heart of this matter, miss Belladonna. We don't know anything about her."

"And that's a bad thing?" Nora asked casually.

"The bad part about that is how little we know about her. Tell me, has she said or done anything that's concerned you since meeting her?" Glynda asked the three, eyeing each one closely. She already had suspicions from Blake's strange demeanor, who knows what the other two could possibly know.

"Mmh... not that I know of, no." Pyrrha replied.

"I dunno," Nora shrugged crossing her arms, "she has the perfect amount of energy in my opinion, so I don't have any issues with her." That's true. For once in Nora's life, she not only met a ghost, not only met a town hero, but on top of all that, her new leader also had the same level of energy as Nora herself!

"Is this just because she wears a hood?" Blake wondered raising a brow. "It seems a bit harsh to judge her just from her appearance."

"Actually, her appearance is the only part not concerning me." Glynda stated. "She seems perfectly natural, perhaps a little excitable at times, for a young girl such as herself. That's the only reason I don't feel the need to follow her everywhere she goes.'

"Then what about her origin is concerning you?" Pyrrha asked again, getting confused in the main issue at hand.

Glynda had to be careful with every single word she said. Despite everything they've said up to this point, everything they know about the girl for now, she couldn't reveal a single thing about the maiden or Ruby's true purpose within these academy walls. For starters, there was the issue if this Ruby was truly the same one that belonged to Tai, and was Qrow's niece. If she revealed anything about her purpose here, not only would her teammates remain suspicious of her, giving Ruby the possible thought that she and Ozpin knew of her true reasons here, they may try to take the matters into their own hands, and the last thing she wanted was for all the students to start questioning one another before the whole school erupted into violence.

The second issue was whether or not any of them actually knew anything. So far, out of the three, Blake seemed the most suspicious, and if she truly was Ruby's friend, it was understandable that she would try to keep some things hidden. There was no way Blake was going to reveal anything of Ruby's past that might get her into legal trouble, whether or not Ruby had a hand in it or was just living with the criminals in the first place. And even if Blake did reveal things to her, there was no guarantee the other two didn't know something that the Faunus herself didn't.

To put it bluntly, she couldn't trust any of the girls, her best bet was to wait for any of them to possibly slip up.

"The concern is what I said before; we don't know anything about her." She said closing the file. "I want you three to keep a close eye on her when you have the time, or at least report anything if she does something suspicious."

"Suspicious like what?" Nora asked looking to the others for an idea.

"Like if she starts breaking things around here or starts asking weird things." She reiterated. "They can be anything, even simple things. Just tell me or Ozpin if she does anything out of place, ok?"

"And what if she does do something weird?" Blake's tension was starting to be noticed by Pyrrha herself, noticing a slight shake in her elbows. "What are you going to do to her?"

"I promise you, she will be perfectly fine. All we want is for someone to keep an eye on her." She promised standing from the chair. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to work. And remember, this conversation never happened to anyone else other than Ozpin or I." The students nodded as they stood from the table, making their way out the door.

For Glynda, there was nothing but worry she had for the students, especially those related to Ruby's teammates. If this girl was as dangerous as she assumed, there was no telling what sort of danger she represented to her so-called friends and allies. They needed to be aware of what was going on no matter how much they trusted Ruby, even if she was one of their best friends. She also needed to start keeping an eye on Blake from this point forward. If she had any close ties to Ruby, there was no telling how far she would be willing to go to keep it a secret, or worse, try to help Ruby with anything she needed. She could easily lie to Blake about anything if it meant furthering her own goals, and that would put the Faunus herself at a risk.

At the same time, the girls walked along the halls with a brief moment of silence, looking back and forth to one another with unease.

"Do you really think there's something we should be worried about?" Pyrrha asked the two.

"Beats me." Nora casually shrugged.

"Look, I'll be honest with you guys," Blake spoke with a small smile, "she might do things here and there that might seem weird to you, but I promise you she's perfectly fine."

"So you do know some things about her?" Pyrrha said with a smirk, the same cheeky grin growing on Nora's face.

"Look, could you guys-"

"Your secret's safe with me." Pyrrha smiled, Nora nodding along.

"Yeah! Team RBPN sticks together!" She declared.

"Thanks guys..." Ruby really did have good friends on her team, that much she could rest easily knowing. They might have their questions about the girl and some possible doubts, but she knew they could be trusted with anything she had to say about her. "Look, anything about her isn't as bad as you guys might think. You see..." The two girls listened with interest as Blake went on and on about everything she knew about Ruby, some details etched out for safety reasons. Thankfully, to her, the occasional nod and smile Pyrrha kept giving her assured her that Ruby's secrets were safe, at least the ones she told her. She went on and on about Ruby's family, in a somewhat brighter light than they should've been, all for the sake of making sure the two didn't get worried about their team leader's origins.

Yet at the same time, fading in and out of attention, Nora just wondered to her.

If Ozpin was aware of this conversation, then where the heck was he?

...

...

"Mmmh..." Weiss mumbled to herself as she gazed out the balcony, viewing the school's inner courtyard and beyond.

Not a minute went by where she didn't think about how someone like Ruby became a leader. She didn't exactly hate the girl, at least not that she could say, she just didn't trust someone like Ruby being an actual role model for anyone in the world, the situation being worse if anyone actually DID look up to Ruby as their personal role model. She was lazy, goofy, and most of all, childish. She was absolutely nothing like her sister, which was what someone should've been. She was dignified, respected, and a all-around well-educated person that every person on Remnant should've inspired to be like. After all, she was the leader of a military division, who should aspire to be someone like her!

What was Ruby compared to her? She was reckless with the amount of Dust she wasted in a fight, she could've gotten everyone killed if something went wrong with her attack like if she missed or aimed the wrong way. On top of that, not once during the initiation did she manage to kill a single Grimm until the very end of it, the details of which she still questions as to how or why she outranked Pyrrha in that matter of skill. If she was just a normal student Huntress, then maybe Weiss wouldn't mind. Was she? No. She was someone everyone was going to look up to, and that made her a problem not just for her teammates, but anyone else in the world.

To get to the point, she was just someone people shouldn't look up to. Weiss didn't look up to her, and her quirky antics were the only reason Weiss could see anyone possibly looking up to her. Other than that, there was nothing aspiring about her, nor inspiring coming off of her. She was nothing more than a threat.

"Tiring day?" A voice spoke from behind Weiss as they approached. To Weiss' surprise, it was Headmaster Ozpin, the Headmaster being someone she was looking forward to talking to about this.

"Oh! Professor Ozpin!" Weiss greeted respectfully with a small curtsy.

"Now now, no need for the formalities." He said, gazing out at the view like she was moments before with his mug in hand. "I always enjoy coming out here to clear my mind on things, and it appears this time I have the pleasure of company."

"Professor Ozpin, thank goodness you're here. I need to talk to you about one of the students you recently made leader." She said, the urgency in her voice sounding severe.

"Oh? Is something the matter?" He wondered.

"It's about that girl you made the leader of Team RBPN, Ruby Fall."

"Oh, her?" He was rather curious where this conversation was about to go. "Please, do tell."

"Well, it's just... Mmmh I think making her the leader was a mistake."

"A mistake? How so?"

"Well... W-With everything!" She yelled. "She's way too laid back for any decent leader-"

"Yes...?"

"-she barely pays any attention to any of the lessons given to her-"

"Oh dear..."

"-and she's nothing but a distraction when someone's in training. She distracted me right in the middle of class when I was fighting a Grimm, any other student could've gotten seriously hurt!"

"Oh my." She smiled at this. Hearing every reply to her words told her he was listening to every word of hers carefully, taking the matter seriously like a respectable man like him should. "That is quite serious, dreadful even."

"Exactly! There's no telling what sort of disaster could occur by making her the leader of her own team."

"Well, thank you very much for this news, Miss Schnee. I'll be sure correct the matter at once!" He promised as he drank his tea.

"Thank you, Professor Ozpin, really." Weiss bowed respectfully again.

"No, thank you Miss Schnee, for bringing this information to me at once. I'll be sure to have her removed from the team at once."

"Yeah, that's...ehhh... W-Wait, huh?" She was caught off guard by his sudden announcement.

"Come to think of it, I should have her expelled from the school immediately." He added.

"W-Wait, I... I don't think you need to go that far-" Her words were interrupted once more as he continued.

"No, no, no, you're right. She's much too dangerous. I'll get the authorities contacted too, perhaps some years in an institution will set her straight. Thank you for sharing this with me." He bowed his head before he walked away.

"W-Wai- Stop!" Weiss pleaded.

"Why should I do that? You said it yourself, she's clearly a danger to the fellow students everywhere. After all, she is the most energetic person you've ever met, right?"

"W-Well... m-maybe not as much as Nora but..." Her arms started to feel tense as he questioned her back.

"She also seemed to be the laziest student you ever came across. I mean who's ever heard of a single person not paying attention in a classroom?" He asked with a brow, sipping his warm tea.

"It... It's not like she's the only one who ever does... i-it's just-"

"And you admitted it yourself, didn't you? She was clearly and intentionally trying to hamper you during your training lesson earlier, correct? Any student purposely lying to someone in the midst of combat should be placed under arrest if she meant to cause harm, right?" He waited briefly for any reply she had to give him, growing more and more curious as she remained silent. "I can hear your concerns loud and clear, Weiss. I promise you she'll be locked away somewhere no one will ever hear from her again. And everyone will have you to thank for saving their lives."

"That's not what I wanted!" She yelped.

"Then what did you want?" Ozpin asked as he walked back to the balcony, not giving her the decency of looking back to her as he spoke.

"I... I don't know, I just... I just don't think it was right making her leader, is all..." She rubbed her tensed arms as she as she gazed out the balcony once again. What did she want at this point? She just came out and told him she shouldn't be leader, so that should've been the end of it, right? Everything he was going off of though, everything he said after... it made her question things. She wasn't entirely _that_ bad at things, and she was right about the Boarbatusk's weak area, even if it was a little obvious to Weiss herself. She just couldn't accept the fact she was jealous of her, she wouldn't snap at someone just for having a preferred teammate on her own team.

Seeing how the conversation wasn't continuing from this point, Ozpin let out a small sigh as he leaned on the Balcony's railing. "Huff, do you know how I became Headmaster, Weiss?" He asked, getting her attention as she leaned on the railing too. "Do you think I was the perfect student? Do you think I simply bought a giant place and decided to start being the Headmaster of an academy of skilled Hunters and Huntresses."

"I know it couldn't have been easy..." She muttered.

"You have no idea." He watched as he poured the remaining contents of the mug over the railing, both watching as a few droplets dripped from the empty cup. "I did it by making mistakes. Lots, and lots, and lots, of mistakes. More so than any man, woman, or child on this planet, I assure."

"And you learned from those mistakes, right?" She guessed.

"Actually... no." His response actually surprised the dignified Schnee herself. "No matter what mistake I made, I made it time and again. Sometimes it was similar to one problem, sometimes it was completely different. But a mistake is the same thing no matter how much the problem changes. And every single mistake lead to a different consequence. Sometimes someone got mad, sometimes I embarrassed myself, and sometimes... something more personal would happen." The vague tone in his voice told her all she needed to know what he was getting at. "And each and everyone one of those times, it would make me a better leader, until I became the man I am today."

"So you want Ruby to learn from her mistakes too, right?" That much did make sense for her now that she thought about it. With someone as young and mysterious as Ruby, she needed to learn quickly about how to adapt to the real world and what it meant to grow up. Perhaps making her the leader of a team wasn't that much of a bad idea in the long run?

'Once again... no. Out of all the mistakes I've made, I don't consider making Ruby the leader of her own team one of them."

Ok, maybe she was off with his logic and reasoning. "You don't?"

"No, I don't. I made each of you leaders out of instinct, and because you all had a special quality about you that made you perfect to lead each team, not just because of how high you scored during the initiation." He explained. "With every single person I made leader, I took careful deliberation of all the pros and cons, and made sure none of them would be a decision I regret. Which is why I need you to trust me in my judgement with everything I do."

"I..." What was she supposed to say at this point? She couldn't say with a good conscious that she agreed with any of his reasoning whatsoever! Ruby was still a bit of a nut to her, and even if she was overthinking some of the issues with her, she still didn't seem like a qualified leader. At the same time, she couldn't say she disagreed with him either! Disagreeing with someone as refined as the Headmaster himself would've been a blemish on her family name, she would've been a disgrace to anything she said or did immediately after. "I... umm..."

"Besides, miss Schnee, tell me exactly how many mistakes she's actually made up to this point?" He requested.

"Aside from distracting me during the lesson today?" She asked, trying to think back. "...None..."

"Exactly." His glasses shimmered as he wiped them off. "She, the both of you, have only been leaders of your teams for a single day. Give her some time to figure things out for herself, and be the respectable leader everyone wants you to be by assisting her when she truly needs it."

As much as she hated to admit it to herself, he was right, and she was wrong. It had only been a single day, and despite the little hiccup she had during the fight with the Grimm, she hasn't done anything actually bad as her first day of being leader. If anything, she had to admit making bunk beds in her room to help save on space was a little creative. At most, the one thing her dorm room had going for it was the folding screen Ren had separating the four beds, so they had two beds to sleep on, and Weiss and Yang had two sides to sleep on, to help maintain their privacy during their sleep. Aside from that, maybe not including her other idea of setting the desks near each other in the center so each of the students could work on assignments together, nothing else she herself did was truly remarkable.

All she did accomplish at this point was take her frustrations out on a younger student two years older than her, partly out of jealousy for her teammate, and because she wasn't thinking straight about what she was truly upset about.

This was on Weiss herself, no one else.

"I... I understand... I'm sorry." She frowned slightly. Ozpin eased her guilt as he patted her shoulder for a moment, giving her a comforting smile.

"It's quite alright. Yesterday was a bit exciting for everyone, so there's undoubtedly some stress students are still trying to get over." He commented. That was actually something she hadn't considered. Nearly half the students came to near-death at the hands of the monstrous Grimm, who knows who was still stressed about the events, whether or not on a conscious level themselves. He truly was a wise headmaster for pointing out something simple yet unthought of to her. "But if it's all the same," he continued as he began to walk away, "maybe I'm not the one you should be apologizing."

That was one statement she wasn't going to be easy with. As much as it annoyed her, and regardless of whatever doubts and issues she still had with her, she knew she had to do it.

She owed Ruby an apology.

...

...

"-and for the last seven years, I haven't heard from her since." Blake said, finishing her explanation.

The surprising amount of details and explanation coming from the Faunus-in-incognito was truly something. None of them were expecting the amount of details, however much varied and vague, that lead them to understanding Ruby's early life. Of course there were a few things she kept in the dark like her own Family's true relationship with Ruby's as business partners, the fact they were Faunus and such, as well as Ruby's relationship to Roman Torchwick, the very man Ruby referred to as uncle. She just informed the two about how Ruby's family was a group of criminals who broke the law, whether it was for the fabricated-sake of helping other people less fortunate, or otherwise.

And boy was it a surprising amount of detail to give! Despite how little the information was actually true, to hear that their team leader, the girl who was two years younger than most of them, came from a group of criminals was rather shocking. It's no wonder Glynda herself was so uneasy with the girl, knowing she might actually know a detail or two about Ruby's family roots. There was no way she wouldn't know about Ruby's possible criminal family if someone like Blake knew so easily. Then again, considering she was friends with her for the first half of her life, that did make things a little easier to explain.

Either way, everything she said between then and now as still just as amazing. Ruby being the daughter of a family of criminals, and hearing about how she spent the last several years of her life living in the woods herself. Ruby only told the two of them, Nora and Pyrrha, how she was on her own for the last several years, but they weren't expecting it to be anything as bad as that! It did explain a few details though, like Ruby's knowledge of the Grimm and how she was just a proficient fighter. Anyone would've been a grand fighter if they spent that amount of time living on their own in the Grimm-infested world of today. It's nothing short of a miracle that she's even lived for as long as she did now!

Nora definitely had more curious and fun questions to ask Ruby at this point, most importantly if she ever died and did become a ghost.

"Fascinating..." Pyrrha commented rubbing her chin. "And you're sure you can trust her completely, then? You don't think it's a bit strange you just happen to meet up after all these years?"

"To be honest, I don't know." Blake informed, to a regretful level. "I don't know if she's here for a reason, or what that reason could even be. But after all she's been through, the last several years she spent alone because of me, I owe her one. There's nothing I can do for her after all this time except to give her my trust."

"Hmhm well if you trust her, she has my full support as well." Pyrrha decided, much to Blake's relief.

"Yeah, no matter how ghostly or weird she might get, she won't get any weird looks from me!" Nora cheered, pumping her fist in the air.

"Hee heh heh." Blake's chuckle came from both, joy, and relief. She was thankful beyond words that they were willing to trust her as much as she was, despite the fact she herself wasn't entirely sure why she was here. At the same time, she was just thankful to know that two of Ruby's new friends were willing to give her the benefit of the doubt too. "Look, she might not seem like the most normal person at times, but trust me, there's nothing weird about her." She said as she opened the door to her room. "She's completely normal."

"Dawwwwwww, who's a good Wolfie? You are, yes you are!" Ruby gushed excitedly as she patted Wolfie's belly.

She couldn't help it. Wolfie was just too good of a negotiator. Her options were either be happy, or be really happy, and Wolfie's continued licking and nuzzling eventually broke Ruby out of her depressed stupor. As opposed to her previous state of despair and regret, she now found herself excitedly rubbing Wolfie's belly, the large wolf Grimm lying on it's back, body taking up half the room, as it wagged it's tail excitedly with her tongue sticking out.

"Oohhhhh, you'we such a good wittle Wolfie, yes you are!" Ruby continued. "You're so playful and cutie and nice, and-!" She froze.

It was only now, with the sudden draft she felt, that she looked back towards the slightly closed doorway. And there she saw, all three of her team members, all looking at her with a blank look in their eyes and a speechless echo coming from their mouths as Blake closed the door.

Thanks to her previously-depressed state, she forgot her top three rules: 1, keep Wolfie hidden at all times except for an emergency. 2, make sure no one else finds out about Wolfie. And 3, always lock the door if she ever wanted Wolfie to come out for whatever reason.

Now here she was, with nothing more than a blank expression on her face and in her eyes as she stared at the three friends nervously, Wolfie looking to them as well still wagging her tail and with her tongue sticking out.

"Umm... I can explain..."

...

...

...

 _ **A/N: Annnnd I think that's a perfect spot to end it on. What better way to end than to leave it off a cliffhanger while I go on vacation for the next week, with who knows how long even after till I post the actual update ^^!**_

 _ **Hopefully the writings still just as good as usual, with it's typical**_ ** _typos here and there. It should be obvious at this point, but I'm ore of the "quantity over quality" sorta guy. It's not like I don't try to keep everything correct, but missing one word out of the THOUSANDS WRITTEN DAILY is a bit understandable, right XP?_**

 ** _Also like to apologize about a little joke I made earlier with the shippings- I regret to inform, but outside of plot-related conveniences and pieces related to the actual/main story, I'll be keeping any and all shippings professional. It might seem like an annoyance, but this way keeps the majority happy in case they want one shipping compared to another, or don't want to see a shipping compared to the next. Plus when I have contests and whatnot, it makes it easier for you guys to make the ships if you want to in your spinoffs ^^._**

 ** _Speaking of which, should be obvious, but hosting a Christmas challenge this month! Rules pretty obvious- whoever makes the best Christmas related fanfic based on this fanfic's universe wins! It can be about anything and anyone as long as it's Christmas related, with Christmas being the deadline. The only difference this time are 2 things: 1, the winner will receive a bonus chapter of something they want to see in this fanfic. They're usually non-canon, but written fully as an episode, so you won't need to worry. Other difference is, sine Christmas should be a bit easier to write about, the minimum-word condition this time around is 3k Words minimum, though will be lenient to anyone who writes like a 2.9 or so._**

 ** _So as always, leave a like and a review if you enjoyed and are totally not peeved over me leaving off that cliffhanger which I know nobody will hate me for as I go on vacation for the next week in Vegas ^^!_**


	34. Interlude 2: Secrets and Lies

**_A/N: 5k Pre-A/N, but to be fair, this was an interlude anyway- the fact it's even this big is rather impressive compared to the 2-3k I was expecting/planning. Anyway, today we get ourselves a fairly nice explanation of Ruby involving Wolfie here. I Apologize if it's rushed in some parts, the latter half of it I just finished today and sort of wanted to get over with cause it was causing a minor hiatus after I got back from Vegas last week (which was great btw ^^!)._**

 ** _Anyway, hope you still enjoy!_**

...

...

...

"Talk. Now." Blake practically ordered to the speechless hooded girl. All she could do was poke her fingers together as she tried to think of an explanation for the events before her.

Up till now, her job was relatively easy. All she had to do since coming here was infiltrate the facility, learn of the maiden's whereabouts, figure out how to get there, and then, if possible, execute the maiden herself. All in all, it seemed pretty straightforward. She had her initiation just a day ago which resulted in her not only forming a team with her best friend, Blake, and two new friends, Nora Valkyrie and Pyrrha Nikos, but ended up with her being the leader of said team, forming Team RBPN [Ruben]. As to whether or not that would make her job any easier had yet to be seen, but she was looking forward to leading her team for the time being. Who knows, if things played out well enough maybe she could get their help in all this?

Sadly, her enthusiasm wasn't shared with all the friends she made. In particular, a white-haired Schnee named Weiss was completely cross about it. She didn't consider Ruby a friend, she didn't consider her an equal, she didn't consider her anything other than a nuisance to Weiss herself and everything this academy represented. Personally, she could care less about anything this academy had to offer. Once her job was done, she would bail as soon as the opportunity presented itself. But that didn't mean she didn't want to make any friends possible. After all, this was her first time being out in the open world on her own, and there were a variety of different things she had to discover, both bad and good! Yet Weiss considered her among the bad side of those things, which caused the white-hooded girl to fall into a bit of a depression.

As such, being the caring caregiver and guardian she's been up to this point, sensing her Pup's despair, Wolfie entered the room from her shadow in the hopes to cheer her up, and as much as Ruby didn't want any pestering, she eventually fell for Wolfie's playful, nuzzling, charms. She was just the perfect negotiator that no one could say no to, continuing to nip at Ruby's neck ticklishly and lick her cheek until she cheered up. Eventually, Ruby was unable to resist the helpful wolf mother's feelings, finding herself playing with the large near-room-sized wolf up to this very point.

Unfortunately, that's where disaster happened; no sooner had she started playing with Wolfie, rubbing the playful wolf's belly, did her three teammates drop in on her after their secret meeting with Glynda, the latter asking them to keep an eye Ruby due to her unknown history and background. If there was a bright side, it was that they didn't plan on it, at least not completely, since they trusted their leader, even more so after Blake went on to explain at least half of everything of Ruby's past, at least the details she knew and details she knew wouldn't make her two friends entirely wary of her. The bright side turned Grimm, literally speaking, however when they came across Ruby playing with the large wolf Grimm within their very room.

Even Blake had no words for what she just stumbled across, unable to think of a single thing to her fellow teammates that witnessed the same scene.

"Well...ehh..." To say Ruby was in a nervous panic would've been the grandest of understatements. At all times, she was told to follow three direct rules when it came to Wolfie: 1, always keep Wolfie hidden unless it was an emergency. 2, never bring Wolfie out in public, even if it's in a room by herself. And 3, if for whatever reason she does bring Wolfie out, always make sure she kept the door to whatever room they were in locked. And now here she was after breaking those rules not two days into her stay at Beacon. "It's uhhh... It's kinda hard to explain..."

"Try me." Blake dared. She wasn't being hard on Ruby out of anger or feelings of betrayal, but fear. She trusted Ruby with all her heart, so she knew she could trust Ruby. The problem was she needed an explanation and fast, less her teammates been to panic and tell Glynda everything they just saw. They were warned not two hours earlier about Ruby, and despite the trust they promised Blake, Ruby doing something as bizarre as having a Grimm with her in the center of an ACADEMY FULL OF HUNTERS might cause a complication or two.

"W-Well... you uhh... you probably wouldn't believe me if I told you..." She commented, the nervousness in her eyes only covered by the tip of the hood that dangled down to her nose from Blake's point of view. "Y-You see uhh...Y-You know how I ran away and all a near half-decade ago?"

"Yeaaaah...?" Blake crossed her arms as she listened.

"W-Well, umm... I-I didn't obviously know how to take care of myself in the woods and all, what with being ten and everything, and had a tendency of starving here and there." Like all past lies, the current ones she was giving were to both cause sympathy and reliability from Blake, which were sadly working. She hated above all else to lie to Blake and fill her with even more guilt, but she had absolutely no choice by this point. The more sympathy she could muster from Blake, the more likely she was to believe her story. "And one day, I eventually got so hungry that I sort of collapsed shortly after I noticed a large Grimm chasing me."

"And that Grimm happened to be..." Blake trailed off, looking to the wolf in question.

"Wolfie's den mother, or at least what I think was her den mother at the time." She clarified. "I don't know why either, but for some reason she didn't eat me, instead when I woke up, I found myself surrounded by a bunch of wolf-like Grimm pups, a lot of them actually not much bigger than I was at the time."

"A Grimm actually saved you?" Blake wondered rubbing her chin. There were numerous Grimm in the world, some old, some new, and many that had yet to be documented, at least not by still-living researchers, so the possibility wasn't impossible. She had yet to hear of a Grimm though that wouldn't devour a human on sight, especially one as weak and defenseless as a starving ten year old.

"I-I know it sounds weird, trust me, I couldn't believe it at first myself either. Honestly, I think it's thanks to my cloak she didn't eat me."

"Why's that?"

"Because with most of the pups being as young as they were, they were actually more white in color than most of the other Grimm I've seen." She stated. "I don't entirely remember if most of the white was their bone as they were young or if their fur was just a different shade since they were so young. All I know is my cloak was similar in their color, so all I could actually think of was that the den mother thought I was a lost pup or something... At least it was half right about the lost part, heh heh..." She chuckled nervously, trying to let out a small joke to help break the tension a little bit.

It didn't work.

"Well if what you say is true, then that still doesn't explain the Grimm here. You said it was... what did you call the wolf again?"

"Wolfie." Of course someone like Ruby would name her that.

"Yeah, you said it was Wolfie's mother that found you, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Then what does that have to do with this wolf?"

"Yeah, s-so about that, um... Y-You see, I ended up sticking with Wolfie's family for nearly a month. I mean I didn't really have any other option at that point, if they found out who I was, they might've killed me."

"Wait, doesn't that mean you ate with them?" A notable twinge of fear crossed Blake's mind. "R-Ruby... you didn't...did you eat p-"

"What- no! It's nothing like that!" She quickly sputtered, waving her hands back and forth. "I mean... they did occasionally hunt a human or two, but obviously I didn't do anything involving that, I was confined to the cave they stayed near. For the most part, the only time I ever ate was when they brought back dead animals here and there. I don't know if they caught on to me being a human or not at any point cause I had to learn how to start a fire with nothing short of my own two hands... and any dust I had on hand."

"Anyway, when it came to those times, I cooked the food over a fire, the wolves seemed to like it when it was cooked. Otherwise the only other time I managed to eat were the occasional times they let the other large pups roam the forest. Any time they I did what I could to collect apples or anything else I could find from trees."

"You never tried to run away?"

"Of course I did." Ruby rolled her eyes at the obvious question. "A day or two after I finally got some food and had enough energy to, I ran in the middle of the night. But one of the larger wolves tracked me down and carried me back to the cave, I was thankful it didn't try and eat me!"

"But what does that have to do with Wolfie?!" Blake nearly yelled growing frustrated. This story was sounding a bit ridiculous, but considering none of the fellow teammates have ever come across a species of Grimm like Wolfie, they couldn't necessarily call her a liar. But the longer Ruby continued her explanation, the more likely they were to disbelieve her. And there was only so much she could do to protect her until she herself started doubting Ruby.

"I was getting to that, Blake-" Ruby tried to ease her worries despite what fear she had welling up inside herself.

"Well get to it faster! I mean for goodness sake Ruby, you have a Grimm with you. People are going to be terrified!"

"Dawwwww, who's just a fwuffy wuvvie puppyyyyy!" Nora awwed as she continued to scratch the great Wolf's stomach. Up to this point, much like they found her when this entire discovery began, Wolfie had remained put on her back as Ruby tried to explain her presence to the fellow group. Growing bored within five seconds of the conversation, Nora was stop the beast's belly with her legs over it like a horse, scratching the seemingly-playful Wolf's stomach for the last several minutes, Wolfie playfully wagging it's tail as it's tongue tangled out of it's mouth. Whether it was Ruby's own will keeping Wolfie from acting any different or Wolfie's own simple playfulness with friends to it's young pup had yet to be determined, and for the time being, neither she, Ruby, or Nora cared.

After all, who could get terrified at a terrifyingly vicious killer wolf grimm that could devour a single student in two bites that took up nearly half the size of the room?

Certainly not Nora!

Blake moaned mentally at the sight of the girl, the valkyrie not helping her case whatsoever. "Ok, well that's just Nora. But what about the others?!"

"You have such a lovely fur coat." Pyrrha commented as she kneeled near the Wolf's head, scratching her behind the ears.

"You're not helping!" Blake yelped.

"Look, Blake, as for the rest of the story," Ruby continued, "it's a bit of a trick the wolves can do." Blake watched as Ruby turned back towards the wolf, signaling her attention. In one simple descent, the three girls watched as Wolfie suddenly dove into Ruby's shadow for several seconds, their eyes going wide with shock, before the Wolf emerged several seconds later sitting at attention before Ruby. "Whatever species of Grimm Wolfie is, they can merge into peoples' shadows."

"Oh my..." Pyrrha commented as she rubbed her chin, detailing everything she just saw.

"That's AWESOME!" Nora cheered with excitement. Before any of the other three could react, Wolfie let out a quiet yelp as Nora suddenly had the wolf stuck in a headlock, the wolf scampering in fear trying to pull itself out of Nora's mighty grip as she pushed it into the ground where her shadow was. "C'mon, do it again! Jump into my shadow!"

"Ack! Nora, it doesn't work like that!" Ruby panicked, worried for both Nora's and Wolfie's safety from the opposite person. "She can only jump into my shadow now, she can't go into anything else!"

"Awwwww..." Nora whined as she released the beast, the poor wolf huddling itself behind the bunk bed on the opposite side of Nora. Not once in Ruby's life had she seen the wolf so terrified of someone until today.

"So whatever this wolf Grimm is, it can jump into a person's shadow?" Pyrrha questioned. "But wouldn't that make life more than difficult for you if you spent the last several years alone with yourself? I mean if Wolfie had to eat anything, that would expose you and her."

"Normally it would, but ever since I got Wolfie, she hasn't eaten anything, unless it's just for the taste or a treat or some thing. And she never comes out on her own unless I'm in danger or I want her to." Ruby replied. "She pretty much draws her strength from me and vice-versa and all that. Long as I'm alive, she's alive too, though I'm not sure if the opposite holds true either."

"I see... So it kind of has a parasitic relationship with you then." Pyrrha stated. "She's with you and drawing strength from you, but if something happens to you she'll die too."

"Mmh... Yeah, I guess that's one way of looking at it." Ruby said with a nod. While she might not have learned very much about other types of animals in the world, she learned a good handful of details about Grimm from her dear sweet _grandma_ , and knew what terminology Pyrrha was referring to when it came to a parasitic relationship.

It pays to have the leader of the Grimm as your grandmother.

"Then why do you still have it with you?" Blake asked, never losing an ounce of the same worry she once did. Despite the lengthy details and facts Ruby's given them about Wolfie, she had yet to tell her anything about the apparent Wolf pack she came across, nor what happened to her immediately after.

"Well... that's where the problem sorta comes in." Ruby mumbled with a frown as she poked her fingers. "See after a few weeks, a group of hunters came around and started attacking Wolfie's family, so I used that time to make my escape from the den. I'm just lucky I knew how to use my semblance by that point or they might've found me."

"Wouldn't it have made more sense to stick with them and ask them for help?" Nora pointed out.

"Well yeah, that was the plan after the first couple seconds, but then I had a worry. I worried they might try to hunt me too if they knew Wolfie was stuck in my shadow." She revealed.

"Why were you worried about that? You could've just told them the truth about the wolf."

"And do you think they would believe me? Do you think any of them wouldn't have been the least bit suspicious if a seemingly innocent girl in the woods could make a Grimm come out of her shadow?"

As much as Blake tried to find a retort to the question, she was at a loss. Not two minutes ago did Ruby display the incredible ability of Wolfie being able to jump in and out of her own shadow, and, despite being told everything beforehand, they still couldn't help find it a little concerning that she could do it at all. Add that in with how a suspicious girl hanging around a den of Grimm was living a semi-normal life while just trying to stay alive, and there would be no telling what they might've thought of her!

They might think she was a Grimm, or some demon girl who was either possessed by a Grimm or could control the Grimm. Not to mention the fact this still happened around the time Ruby was ten years old. With the sort of mindset any child would have at that point, and with everything that happened up till then, she could've worried about any number of things or excuses explaining why she didn't trust the hunters.

And all of this stemmed from one very detailed lie.

"I was worried they'd think I was a Grimm too or something, so I ran away from the den. Wolfie's been by my side ever since."

"Then why did you come all the way to Beacon, Ruby?" Pyrrha asked curiously. "Wouldn't that pretty much put you in the center of so much danger?"

"Honestly, that was a bit of a trade off compared to my goals here." She replied, earning a look of revelation from Blake herself.

"So the reason you came to Beacon in the first place..." She trailed off.

"Was to see if there was a way to remove Wolfie from my shadow or something." She answered. "I don't want to risk dying if killing her kills me too, and I don't want to have to live in fear of other Hunters for the rest of my life every time I come across one. Besides, even if it didn't kill me, I just can't bring myself to harm Wolfie anyway." She added, walking over to the large wolf was she pat her head calmly. "Thanks to her, I've been able to fend for myself wherever I went, and she's really good at scaring off Grimm that've come near me."

"I see...mmhh..." Blake nibbled on her thumbnail a bit as she tried to think. What would be the solution to all this then? Ask someone for help? Hope the problem fixes itself? She definitely couldn't betray Ruby's trust after all this time, not after all Blake did to her by abandoning her. This would've been the perfect chance to redeem herself for the younger self-entitled sibling, even if every fiber of Blake's person was telling her not to for some reason. Noticing Ruby's brief distraction of Wolfie, Blake quietly turned to the other two in whisper. "What do you two think?"

"I say we keep him!" Nora exclaimed. It didn't come anywhere near her favorite person in the world, but she just couldn't bring herself to throw out an adorably dangerous puppy like Wolfie.

"I will admit it's a bit much to take in, but it might be better for everyone if we try to help Ruby." Pyrrha smiled. "Even if we didn't agree with anything she said, it might put us at risk too if the Grimm is exposed before anyone else. We're just as likely in trouble if Ruby ever gets caught."

"And you're not worried about anything Ruby said?" Blake needed to know to make sure there was no room for doubt.

"Anything Ruby said? No. I am curious though what sort of Grimm Wolfie is. I don't think there's ever been mention of his species."

"Well we can investigate that part of it ourselves, but we should at least trust Ruby for the time being."

"What about the time?" Ruby asked overhearing parts of the huddled whispering.

Glancing back at Pyrrha and Nora once more, Blake smiled to the team leader with a calming sigh. "We said we'll help you with whatever you need involving Wolfie." From one split second, Ruby's eyes sparkled like the night's starry sky, and in the next second, Blake found herself nearly tackled off her feet as Ruby threw herself at her in a tight hug.

"Oooooh thank you thank you thank you!" She squeaked, Blake unable to resist the small blush on her face as she patted Ruby's head.

"But you need to make sure no one else finds out about Wolfie, Ruby." Blake reminded. "We can't risk anyone else finding out about the Grimm."

"Oh pffft," Nora sputtered waving her hand playfully, "who's gonna find out we're harboring a Grimm around here?"

*knock*

*knock*

*knock*

"Ahhhh! What have I done?!" Nora panicked, squeezing her cheeks.

"It's ok, Nora, relax." Ruby said in a calming tone. Gesturing to the wolf once more, the others watched as Ruby ushered the Wolf to her person, diving into her shadow once more and vacated the room. "Keeping Wolfie hidden won't be too hard. As long as nothing's covering her or blocking her, she can hide inside my shadow indefinitely." And with a smile, the leader made her way to the dorm's only exit, growing surprised at who stood before her.

It was the Heiress, the leader of Team WYJR, and the Schnee girl herself, Weiss. Unlike the other troubling looks the Schnee girl gave her every time they met, while still having her arms crossed, she seemed more uneasy than she did angry or frustrated.

"Oh... hey Weiss..." Ruby greeted in mumble, stepping out into the halls before closing the door behind her. The others could only look at each other with curiosity as to what the Schnee wanted to talk about with Ruby by themselves. "Look, about before-"

"Stop." Weiss immediately cut off, raising her hand in pause. "Just... Let me speak here." It only made Ruby more curious as to what the Schnee wanted with her. Not only did she seem less angry than before, her instruction sounded more request-like than it did commanding. "Look, I've been doing a bit of... thinking... about stuff..."

"What kind of-"

"Stop." Weiss repeated. She wanted to get everything out in the open before Ruby could utter a single word. She absolutely needed to get everything off her chest here, not wanting any other interruptions to halt this meeting. "I will speak. By stuff, I was referring to the... argument, we had earlier." Ruby nearly opened her mouth for a split second to respond before closing it again, remembering what Weiss said. If it was anything related to the argument anyway, she really wanted to know what was going on. "Look, I've given it some thought, and determined... We're not equals. Not by the least."

"However," she continued on before Ruby could feel any negativity, "after some thought, I decided... maybe it's for the best." That one single line actually brought more confusion than it did joy to the young white hooded girl, granted it did relieve her somewhat. "Your team together is a bit disjointed, with so many unbalanced people and without any sense of order. So, maybe having someone just as hyper as all of them and careless actually makes for the best leader."

"I'm not careless Weiss," Ruby stated looking back to the door, "I care a lot about my team and friends. I'm just trying to adjust to a lot of new things here."

"Heh, makes sense." Weiss chuckled. "After all we're both the leaders of our own teams now, and we have different goals intended for each side. But I didn't mean it negatively like that. I mean someone easy going and calm would probably make the best leader for your team, no matter how old you are." She could already feel the growing smile emanating from Ruby's person, the girl absolutely beaming from her words.

"So you're not mad then?" As much as she wanted to correct Ruby's outlook on this, she just didn't have the heart to.

"Honestly, maybe I was never mad in the first place. I guess I really was just jealous you had a great team member on your side." She finally admitted. "And for that, I'm sorry."

Ruby was in a bit of awe at Weiss' confession, seeing the confession as a good sign that they were no longer enemies with one another, or at least Weiss no longer considered Ruby an enemy. She knew a part of Weiss was definitely Jealous of Pyrrha being on Ruby's team, she just had the decency to not point it out directly or try to convince Weiss how she truly felt. And if she was finally ready to apologize for what she said and look passed it all, then maybe the two could finally be what Ruby deeply wanted.

"So... does this means we're friends now?" She wondered.

"Hmmm... I wouldn't exactly say "friends" right now," she replied to Ruby's dismay, "but we're definitely not enemies anymore or anything. I'd say we're possibly halfway passed acquaintances, and... nearly friends." She said as she gave Ruby a cheeky grin. "After all, just because I accept you as being their team leader, doesn't mean I fully accept you yet as being a Huntress like the rest of us. If you want to earn that, you're gonna have to prove it to me personally."

"Heh, you're on!" Ruby cheered, pumping her fist out in excitement.

"Heh..." The Schnee couldn't refuse the challenge she presented herself. With nothing more than a small smile, she fist bumped, prepared to prove to Ruby just how much of a true leader she was, and Ruby was prepared to show Weiss just how much of a Huntress she could be.

It was an official Rivalry between Acquaintances.

Between two Friends.

...

...

 ** _*Later...*_**

 _*ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-*_

Fingers pressed upon the keyboards endlessly with no end in sight. For the past several hours, Glynda Goodwitch was making progress with the current students' grades and details over the presendented Orientation they had the other day, finalizaing all reports and filing them accordingly into the school's mainframe. There, they would be presented within the Codex of Beacon for the history to come, where every student would be forever categorized for who and what they were even after they graduated the academy.

During this process, she also gazed at the security footage on the following screens right of the computer she was working on. They gave her a pleasant view of everything within and surrounding the academy walls, giving her a view of every nook and cranny across the school and all of it's borders. It was the best way to keep an eye on all the students at the time, and to ensure everyone remained asleep as she worked, with one particular student among all else.

Ruby Fall, or to be be more accurate, her true name, Ruby Rose.

Obviously they didn't have any cameras within the school's dorms, giving the students the privacy they required and needed. After all, it would've been a grand invasion of their rights and freedoms if they had security cameras everywhere private like the dorms or the bathrooms across Beacon, locker rooms included. It was during this time though that a particular figure moved across the Camera, as well as one approaching her from behind.

"Working late, I see?" Ozpin greeted as he observed her progress.

"Just finishing the orientation exams and the Teams created today." Glynda replied, taking a noteable pause from her work as she observed the camera more thoroughly.

"And asking certain students to keep an eye on one student in particular, I see." He said before taking a sip of his tea. It was no surprise to Glynda that he was aware of the meeting she had with the other members of Ruby's team. It would be all too surprising if the headmaster of this prestigious academy didn't know what was going on all around it.

"If you want me to keep from hounding her constantly, then that is my only demand." Glynda stated.

"Fair enough." Ozpin replied calmly as he walked over to the desk. "Just remember, if they do tell you anything, report to me before you take any actions, alright? I'd rather not have to deal with the press talking about a teacher attacking a student out of nowhere over some gossip or something."

"Deal." Glynda replied. It was at this moment his curiosity was getting the better of him, noticing Glynda's unwavering attention to the security.

"Is something the matter?"

"It's Team Ruby's window, sir. Apparently, someone's sneaking out during everyone's slumber and leaving the academy."

"Huh... I didn't think Ruby would be so hasty in completing her mission." The perplexed expression crossing Glynda's face only increased the worry of the matter.

"But that's part of the problem, sir. It's not Ruby sneaking out right now."

"It's not?"

"No, sir. It's... Blake."

...

...

...

 _ **A/N: And another sizeable chapter done. I might do these "interlude" chapters from time to time if I just need a chapter to go over something inbetween the episodes, but don't worry too much, it's not going to take over a majority of the episodes. I'm also hoping I didn't forget anything with the wolfie explanation, I wrote this over several days compared to my usual one day necessity, so might've forgotten a tidbit or two. Oh well...**_

 _ **WIth that said, hope you all enjoyed, and hope to see more posts for the Christmas contest! Refer to the last few chapters for the rules I believe, we already got a grand master of a christmas fic from Sani which I'm grateful for, so I'll be more than stunned if someone manages to beat his/her fic.**_

 _ **Speaking of which, hoping to get my own christmas piece finished too X)... *hint hint***_

 _ **Like, fav, follow, and review if you enjoyed, and hope to see you soon!**_


	35. Contest Entry: Christmas at Grandma's

_**A/N: Well folks, here it is! The Contest winner for the Christmas Event is...SANI2341! And before I go on with the following I will announce I will accept any late entries till the end of the year, and not a day past that.**_

 _ **Anyway, I gotta say folks, this is the best I could've expected out of any entry for the Christmas contest. Not only was it posted THE DAY AFTER I announced the contest, and not ONLY was it longer than was necessary, but it was shockingly good! I don't mean that in a negative sense or anything, but I've yet to meet anyone capable of pulling off a fanfic this large, good, and fast as me since coming to , so that's huge props to him/her ^^**_

 _ **As such, you can expect your contest winning fanfic choice in the upcoming chapters soon- I got some days off starting thursday so hopefully i'll have something for you then you lucky contest winner you :P**_

 _ **I will still accept entries AND reward anyone who makes a Christmas fic before the new year, just make sure it's based off this Fanfic's universe (mine I mean) and is at least 3k words. Anything can go as well as long as it takes place at any point in Ruby's life from when she's a baby to present day. I look forward to any and all entries before the year ends ^^**_

 _ **Once again, Thank Sani2341 for such an awesome fanfic, I had a lot of fun rereading this numerous times, and I look forward to reading this again soon, as well as your other fanfics!**_

 _ **My little Fire Flower: Christmas at Granny Salem's**_

 _ **Omake to Monokub's My Little Fire Flower**_

 _ **by Sani2341**_

For a few weeks now winter had been starting to set in around Salem's old fortress. The red ground was slowly becoming as white as her Grimm's faces, especially with the few pathways cleared of snow by the few non grimm inhabitants of her domain. Ruby was currently outside making snow angels with Wolfie, although the large Grimm was not really leaving angel like imprints as she was just rolling around in the snow next to her pup.

Before the white hooded girl could react though, a snowball hit her square in the face, a grinning Neo standing not far away. It took the young girl a moment to get the remainder of the snowball out of her face before she stood up. having scooped up a handful of snow while doing so, Ruby quickly retaliated against the older girl. Or at least she tried to, but the moment she threw the snowball, Wolfie had been chasing after it, catching it out of the air just before it collided with Neo. Of course this meant there was neither time nor room for any of the two to evade the other and so Grimm and girl went tumbling through the snow. Ruby tried to hold it in, but when the now snow covered Wolfie searched desperately for the ball she was sure she had caught, her joyful laughter broke free, echoing over the nearby hills.

When the other girl got up herself, she could not help but join in as Ruby came closer, still sniggering.

"Wolfie, that was a snowball, you won't find it. And you were not supposed to chase it." Looking at her pup, the Grimms ears and tail hung low in embarrassment, at least until Ruby hugged the big wolf as best as she could, one of her hands sliding along it's fur. "Now it's okay, just remember it next time."

After this little incident, Wolfie just sat nearby by as the two girls continued their merciless battle of snow. It started innocent enough, but soon each of the girls started using their semblances to one up the other, Every other Neo Ruby managed to hit breaking into hundreds of fragments as the snow touched her, while she herself left many trails of rose petals everywhere as she used her own Semblance to dodge every icy missile thrown at her. Their fight continued for quite some time, only really ending when finally both girls were utterly exhausted. They then made their way back inside and began to search a kitchen stocked with cocoa. It took them longer than Ruby would have liked but when they finally found all necessary ingredients, Neo made her a cup of hot chocolate in record time. Taking their cups back to Ruby's room, they sat down on her small couch and enjoyed the warm beverage and how it warded of the cold that had begun to set in after their lengthy campaign of snowy warfare.

It was this image of the two not-quite sisters snuggling on the couch that greeted Salem as she entered her granddaughter's chambers. Striding forward in a calm and regal manner, her long black gown dragging on the floor, she came to a stop in front of the two girls, but before she could inquire what they had been up to outside in this dreadfully cold weather, young Ruby noticed her and spoke up.

"Hi Granny, say when are we gonna put up the decorations?" Her utter confusion at this question clearly showed on her white face as she replied.

"Decorations? Whatever for would we need to put up new or different decorations?"

Seeing tears well up in the young girl's eyes Salem realized she had just said something very wrong, but she could not fathom what it was that caused this reaction in the girl, at least until she began to sob out words.

"You *sob* you don't have Christmas here?"

"What is this Christmas?", Salem asked confused, causing Rubby to suddenly stop crying, although the tears did not seem to stop.

"You don't even know what Christmas is?!", Ruby exclaimed shocked, "It's when families come together and give each other gifts to show they appreciate each other, like the old man did for the seasons."

"And what have decorations to do with that?", Salem asked intrigued more by the girls excitement at talking about the celebration than what was celebrated.

"Well to help everyone get into the festive spirit you put up decorations, like little paper snowflakes, evergreen branches and then you get together and bake cookies together and go shopping for gifts for each person you like and - Oh no where do I get a present for Mommy here?", Ruby finished her explanation suddenly as panic set in, after all she had never not given Cinder a Christmas present and just because she was staying with her granny did not mean she would stop doing so.

Salem meanwhile was unable to keep herself from being moved by how much this celebration seemed to mean to the little girl. And so, to calm her down she leaned forward and hugged her a bit before speaking once more.

"If you want I can help you make a present unlike any Cinder got before. We can even invite her over here for this Christmas, but before that we need to get everything here ready so she can enjoy herself right?"

her words seemed to hit the right spot as Ruby quickly calmed down and let out a small "Okay" before the little girl leaned back on her couch, the exhaustion of the day catching up with her as she fell asleep.

After they laid the small girl onto her bed, Salem turned to Neo and spoke in a low whisper so as not to wake the sleeping human.

"So what do we need to do to make my little granddaughter happy?"

A grin spread over the mute girl's face before she began to write on a small whiteboard:

'Step 1: Decorate the hallways: hang up bundles of mistletoe, make little snowflakes and gather evergreen twigs and branches and put them on the walls.'

Giving the Grimm woman a moment to commit it to memory, Neo erased the writing and wrote the next message on it.

'Step 2: When Ruby wakes up bake Cookies with her 3; Step 3: make sure Cinder can come over; Step 4: presents. :) yay'

"Thank you very much, if you could make sure everything is ready to begin baking immediately when Ruby wakes it would be appreciated."

Giving a polite nod, Neo rushed into the kitchen she had just used make hot chocolate for the little girl and herself, taking note of what ingredients for cookies she would need to get from one of the other kitchens or the pantry.

Salem herself covered herself in a long black furred mantle before she left her home for the first time since winter had started. She moved quickly as she was headed for the closest pack of Beowulfs, arriving before their Alpha shortly, she stared him down until he submitted before his Queen as he should before she spoke up.

"You and your will gather me evergreen trees and branches and bring them to the front entrance of my fortress."

Having received somewhat unorthodox orders from their Queen, the Grimm set out towards the not so nearby Forest. The pack marched for nearly an hour before reaching its outskirts, where the lower members of the pack immediately set of, hoping that bringing back the biggest tree would allow them to rise in prominence and gain favor with their master. And so it came that in the evening, the pack of two dozen brought back 23 trees, not one of them smaller than 6 feet, to the immense satisfaction of Salem.

While the pack had been scurrying through the forest Neo had her own hunt to complete. As it turned out neither of the kitchens she knew where they were had any flour and so the mute girl had begun the search for the pantry, which had not been near either of the kitchens. After wasting a few hours wandering the dark hallways on her own she literally run into Hazel.

"uff, say what has you in such a hurry girl? Isn't it normally the little tyke in the white cloak that's rushing around like a maniac?", the broad shouldered man asked after making sure Neo wasn't hurt.

'I need to find some flour before Ruby wakes up, pantry where?', she quickly wrote on her whiteboard after hazel had finished his question.

Reading the message, the man stroked through his beard in thought until he spoke up once more.

"I think the pantry should be the second door on the left from here, but why do you want to bake cookies so desperately?"

'Ruby wants to celebrate Christmas, Salem wants to make it the best the girl ever had.'

"Huh, thinking about it I haven't celebrated it since I started working for Salem, would be a nice change of pace, say you want some help carrying all the baking supplies?" As Neo started Nodding vigorously he lead her to the nearby pantry, where they picked up enough supplies to bake for a full day without pause.

A the same time, salem was in one of the few spawning pools inside her fortress where she crafted new Grimm, waiting impatiently for Dr. Watts to arrive. Her nervous pacing came to a sudden halt as the door was opened and the man she had been waiting for entered the chamber, closing the door behind him.

"My lady what is more important than my work on the Virus to hijack the CCT?", he asked with a slight bow towards Salem.

"I require your assistance with creating a new species of Grimm. As Ruby wants to celebrate Christmas I have been informed that we should decorate the hallways with snowflakes and similar wintery things. But without any ice dust, keeping actual snow intact and on the walls would be impossible, so I require you to help make this new type of Grimm as fitting in form for Christmas decorations as possible.", Salem quickly explained to her subordinate. who began twirling his moustache as his eyes lighted up with an idea.

"That is brilliant, if we make them pleasing enough we could give them the ability to see their surroundings and transmit this to us in some way, allowing us to spy on many private homes during this season next year if we sell them as normal decorations."

Not wanting to admit that she had just wanted to spoil her granddaughter, Salem nodded along sagely. "Yes it is a shame that none of you were willing to inform me of such human customs before, we could have been doing this for years, maybe even have some set up in the Academies themselves by now."

"Oh certainly", Watts agreed, "If you want I will write up a dossier of common holidays and Celebrations in the Kingdoms when we are finished here."

"I would be delighted to receive such a document.", Salem replied, absolutely sure not to miss another of Ruby's favourite festivities because she did not know about it. With all needed personnel present and their little conversation finished, Salem began to form the first protoform of her new spies. While the first few tries looked more like chunks of ice or snow ball, soon they took on the shape of what most people thought of when hearing snowflake. After Watts had informed her that actual snowflakes normally were always different, Salem mad ensure that the new Grimm would spawn with miniscule aesthetic differences to mimic this as well. When they finished, the Yukkiyuna as Slame dubbed the new Species were all perfect white snowflakes, all with the ability float and hold onto any surface they touched. Sending the first few hundred out to take positions along the Hallways, Salem was relieved that at least the first bit of decorating for their first Christma was done.

Cinder was a bit depressed as she walked through Vale. She was on her way to case out the next shop Roman and his goons would try to rob to keep them afloat financially. Btu her bad mood had nothing to do with it, it came from the fact that every other shop window reminded her of how for as long as ruby could walk, they would be going out and look for presents for every member of their ragtag family and the Belladonnas.

But this year was the first time Cinder would not be spending the holidays with her little flower. it wasn't that she did not want to, she would gladly spent the holidays on the lost continent where Salem's base of operations was located, surrounded by grimm if it meant being with her girl. But they did not have the Money necessary to make the trip for such a mundane matter at the moment. Finishing gathering every bit of information for Roman she could, she compiled them in a small file which she encrypted and sent to the master thief with her scroll on her way home.

Once she entered the penthouse that seemed so much emptier without her little daughter, Neo and Wolfie, she heard a 'tink, tink tink' coming from the glass door to the balcony. stepping closer she saw a baby nevermore striking the glass with his cute little beak and a piece of paper tied to its leg. Opening the door to let it in, it hopped onto her shoulder and held out the leg with the paper for her. Unfolding the paper it read:

'This nevermore will grow to normal size during the night before Christmas eve, it will carry you to Ruby and myself the next morning to allow you two to celebrate together.'

Burning the paper with a small application of the Dust in her dress, Cinder could barely contain her joy, that is until she realized she would need to get a present for her little girl in the next two weeks.

Back in Ruby's room the little girl was just waking up. Getting out of her bed she went and took a short shower like mommy had always told her to do before getting dressed for the day. under ehr normal skirt and hoodie she put on a set of thicker underwear to keep her warm when she would be spending time outside again with her Sis and Wolfie. As she stepped outside her room it took her a Moment to realize, but when she looked around, each wall was holding snowflakes, some the size of her hand, other as big as her head, with long evergreen branches hung between them. It was so amazing to the little girl that she did not even notice her granny standing before her until she walked right into her legs.

"Good morning Ruby, I take it we did a good job decorating yes?", Salem asked the little girl with a genuine smile on her face. unable to form actual words, Ruby just hugged Salem's legs and nodded.

"Well then come on, Neo's waiting for us in the kitchen."

With that she led the awed girl to the nearby kitchen, where Neo had been ordered to prepare everything they could need to bake some cookies. Once they arrived,Ruby and Neo immediately got to work, with Salem on offical Oven and timing duty once the first batch was ready to bake. Even Salem could not help but feel happy despite the activities mundane nature, and she suspected that it was mostly Ruby's infectious joy that lifted her own spirits.

THey had a little break for Lunch, after which Hazel came and joined in as well, crushing whole nuts to smaller pieces that would work better with the dough the girls prepared and storing their ever exüpandign assortment of Cookies in boxes on the various shelves so the girls would not gorge themselves on them as soon as they were cool enough to touch.

When Ruby laid down in her bed that evening she found that maybe Christmas at Granny Salem's could be as much fun as it had been at home, if only her Mommy was here to enjoy herself as well.

"Good morning Ruby", salem woke the small girl a few days later.

"Morning", grumbled the still half asleep girl, until she noticed that her granny had come to wake her up personally, at which point she nearly shot out of bed, getting ready for the day as quickly as possible.

"No need for such haste child, I just wanted to wake you to ask if you would like us to make something to send your mother for Christmas.", Salem said, afraid the girl would hurt herself if she kept up this speed. sadly this did not work, because the prospect of working with her granny to make a present for her Mommy just excited the girl even more.

"Yes, Yes oh yes", Ruby shouted as she put on her clothes, finishing with the white cloak she always wore since receiving it from Cinder.

"But what could we make her?", Ruby asked Salem with wide eyes.

"Well I think if you are fine with getting your own present early, I could help you make a little pet grimm for her.", just as the words had left her mouth, she realized she should have covered her ears when doing so, as the squee the girl before her let loose nearly caused the roms only window to shatter.

"When can we start?", Ruby asked after she managed to regain control over her voice, waiting politely before Salem.

"Right now if you want Ruby."

After a short nod from Ruby they wandered through the beautifully decorated hallways, passing a few trees that reached from floor to ceiling, until they reached a small innocent looking door in the basement. The room behind it was surprisingly bare, as it only contained only a large pool full of the black stuff, Ruby had seen Grimm emerge from more than once while staying with Salem, and a pair of chairs. Waving towards one of them, Salem sat down in the other and waited for Ruby to sit down as well.

"Now when making Grimm it is important to focus on what they should be. When you have the mental image of the creature you want to create set in your thoughts, you just touch your hand to the pool like this.", following along with her own explanation, Salem focused on the image of a palm sized Beowulf and held her hand flat onto the surface of the pool, "Then you will the Grimm to take form beneath your hand , then when you feel it briúshing against your palm you grab onto it and pull it gently out.", pulling her own hand back she revealed the little beowulf puppy she created. "Now don't be dismayed if the first few attempts don't turn out like you hoped, after all even I need soem tries to get more complex species right when first creating them."

Giving a short nod to signal she had understood the question, Ruby slipped of her seat and kneeled before the pool. She stayed absolutely still for a moment before holding her hand over the pool like her granny had shown her. Grabbing whatever she was creating shortly afterwards , she was dismayed when she only pulled out a writhing mass of Tentacles. Seeing the girls sad frown Salem spoke up once more.

"Now I am not sure what you wanted to make, but even so the fact that it can actually move is remarkable for your first ever attempt. Just go on and try it once more."

With this encouragement Ruby began to try once more and again after that until she finally got it just like she had imagined it.

"Huh that is quite the idea you had there Ruby, I am sure your mother will love it."

Cinder was excited, only one short intercontinental Nevermore ride stood between her and her little girl. Okay maybe she was a bit nervous about the prospect of traveling over sea on the back of a Grimm,or even more than a bit, but if it meant she could be with her Ruby this evening, she would endure it, how uncomfortable it might get. She had was currently in the Emerald Forest and waiting for the little Nevermore to grow to full size. It sounded really painful to Cinder, but if the bird like Grimm actually felt any with all the crackign coming from it's body it did not show it. half an hour later, she was standing next to a giant Nevermore, which was laying down to allow her to board so to speak. Proving how much foresight Salem could show, the Nevermore had even grown hand and footholds out of the same white bone like material that covered its face. Holding onto them, Cinder was relieved that eh bird was not flying as fast as it presumably could, making for a somewhat comfortable ride.

It took the bird most of the day to cross the ocean at this pace, but just after darkness had fallen it sat down before Salem's fortress. Cinder slid down its side and rubbed its beak in appreciation before she made her way through the Entrance, after which she was immediately stunned by the amount of decorations hung along the hallways. She had never seen Salem put up any kind of Holiday decoration and now every wall was hung with evergreen branches and what seemed to be snowflake Grimm. Following the sounds of laughter and conversation, she slowly made her way from door to door, until she arrived in front of a living Room, knocking on the door to not interrupt anything.

Ruby had been enjoying the evening so far, they had eaten a surprisingly nice dinner prepared by Hazel which had been followed by some of the cookies they had made the weeks before for desert. When they had all worked together to clean the kitchen Hazel had used, and they had eaten in, the group of four had moved to a nearby living room where Dr. Watts was already waiting in an armchair, next to him one of the trees that stood in some of the corners of the hallways, their presents sitting beneath it. After taking their places on nearby seat and a couch, they took turns handing out their presents, until only one remained beneath the tree, the Grimm Ruby had made for her mother. Ruby was just admiring the set of tools she had gotten from Watts and Hazel, as a short knock came from the door. When she moved to open it, Salem held her back for a moment and handing her the last present form beneath the tree.

"Here I think you will need this when the door is open.", Salem suggested cryptically as she sent Ruby of towards the door, present in hand. When she opened the door, the little cloaked girl could not believe her small silver eyes. There standing before her was her mommy.

Tears of joy dripping from her eyes She hold out the present to Cinder.

"Merry Christmas Mom", Ruby managed to say, and as soon as the present was out of her hands, she hugged her mom as tight as she could.

Petting her daughter's hair with her free hand, Cinder spoke up,"Merry Christmas to you too, now come I am sure everyone would like to see what is inside your present. Holding each other, mother and daughter moved towards the four waiting people. After Cinder sat down on the couch with Ruby on her lap, she unwrapped her daughter's gift to reveal what looked like a black and white casing for her scroll, although the texture seemed somehow familiar, she could not put down what it was made from.

"Thank you Ruby, but what is it made of?"

"They are a pair of Grimm, they can use your scroll for you and will bring it back to you if you lose it."

Seeing her little girls proud smile, she had one question on her mind, "How?"

"You just put them over the sides of your scroll like a normal cover and when they need to do something they slip out small tentacles to dial numbers or move the whole thing.", Ruby explained cheerfully, although that was not what Cinder wanted to know so she turned to Cinder and repeated the question.

"I taught her of course, I needed to give her something to Christmas, after all your visit was the gift I had prepared for you.", not quite sure what to make of the Grimm woman's answer either, Cinder decided to just let it go and enjoy the evening with most of her family.

...

...

...

 _ **A/N: Phew, what a fun read ^^ once again, great job Sani, I look forward to any future entries you make for the contests as well as your other fic I've been looking into recently ^^! Great work and hope you enjoy your upcoming reward fic soon!**_


	36. Bonus episode 1: A Wolf's Tail

**_A/N: Just about a near 7k words- considering I wrote the last 2/3rds of this the same day I wrote the last half of the last episode, I think that's a good sign ^^ (about a good 7-9k worth of words written in a day, hopefully a good sign)._**

 ** _Anyway, I'd like to present to you all, my very first Rwby-related Bonus Episode, won by Sani2341 for his Christmas entry. I hope I wrote it to is liking, as she had a rather interesting request: She wanted an entire Hentai lemon-based chapter filled up to the brim with so much sexy writing and shipping in it :P!...ok sadly that wasn't what she wanted...*sigh* But she did want the next most interesting thing, which I kinda like in the long run of things: an episode from Wolfie's POV._**

 _ **As a reminder, Bonus episodes usually aren't canon in the main series, so if something is said, mentioned, or shown that is never brought up in the main series (as in main series of my fanfic, not the actual actual show), now you know why.**_

 ** _While there were some issues here and there, mostly in deciding how to go about it, I think it came out rather well, and I'm hoping Sani enjoys it just as much :D!...and sadly there are no refunds if you don't XP lol, anyway, please enjoy this fanfic's first ever bonus episode!_**

 ** _~This will be the day we waited for~_**

 _Cinder and salem are seen standing on a balcony on the side of the latter's home looking out in the distance to where Vale would be. As they look up to a Nevermore flying overhead, the camera pans up as well, showing an orange sky that slowly turns blue._

 ** _~This will be the day we open up the door~_**

 _Returning back down from its view of the sky, we see Ruby opening the door to Beacon's main hall, Wolfie peaking out behind her, Blake standing next to her, oblivious to the Grimm's presence._

 ** _~I don't wanna hear your absolution~_**

 _The Camera 'flies' through the hallways until it settles on Ozpin going through illegible notes on his scroll next to a photo of young miss Fall._

 ** _~Hope your ready for a revolution~_**

 _Outside his window, WYJR can be seen standing together. As the screen is overtaken by a storm of white petals, Weiss pushes Jaune a bit away._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of new solutions~_**

 _One of the petals remain before a black background and is revealed to be Ruby as she pulls out [insert weapon name] and starts twirling her Scythe around, leaving a burning crimson Halo above herself._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of blood evolution~_**

 _The red halo turns into Wolfie's red Iris as the camera zooms out revealing the pool of blood beneath the Grimm. before he dissolves into a shadow and to the side._

 ** _~In time your heart will open minds~_**

 _The shadow flows beneath Ruby cloak who is standing with her team, a conflicted expression on her face. Soon though it is replaced with a look of determination as the Camera pans once more._

 ** _~A Story will be told~_**

 _When the camera settles on Ruby's viewpoint we see Amber kneeling before Cinder, before the camera zooms back and her surroundings turn into the vault beneath Beacon._

 ** _~And Victory is in a Simple Soul~_**

 _We see a final shot of a young Ruby hugging her family, which reveals itself to be an old picture in Salem's Hand who is enjoying tea served by Neo._

Darkness.

What's darkness?

Where am I?

What am I?

There's nothing darkness all around me, a cool yet warm wave flowing across my entire body without end.

I don't know anything. I don't see anything. All I can sense is warmth from this darkness, my being becoming whole with each passing second.

Is this life? Death? Somewhere in-between? The only thing I can tell is that these thoughts are my own, these feelings are my own. Yet I feel like I need someone, someone to lead me, someone to instruct me on what to do.

Suddenly, I feel something grasp the back of my neck, pulling me gently through the endless warm dark that holds me. It's firm, but soft all the same. Within a few seconds alone, I feel a new sensation taking hold of my being- Light.

It's hard to describe. At first, the light hurts and is blinding, and just as quickly it begins to diminish as the land before me comes to focus. I'm in a dark place for all I know. It's not dark like I was in much earlier, it didn't have any warmth to it or cold. It was like the presence of the person before me was emanating this dark feeling to me. I could slowly focus on the figure before me, the one who was holding me from the back of my neck by here mere fingers.

Her eyes were ones of pure darkness that welcomed me into the world. They were filled with rage, trauma, sadness, despair, anger, jealousy, vengeance, loneliness, so many different emotions swirling around in a vortex of nothingness that were her eyes. No matter how long I stared into them, I couldn't figure out who this person was or why she just created me.

Created me? Did I know that already? Does that mean she's my master? Am I her master? I'm so confused.

It's only within the reflection of her eyes that I see myself, my black body being devoid of any color but black and white. The only white on my body was the strange-looking mask I was wearing, small red lines across the eyelids that trailed across it from my head to my snout. I had short little paws all around me, four of them, one on each legs, and even though I couldn't see it, I could feel my tail wagging, telling anyone around me that I was excited about something I didn't know about at the time.

Speaking of around me, I wasn't the only one before this woman, this person I suppose I was supposed to call "Master". There were others like me, kind of, surrounding her, at least three of them. They were beowolves, completely different from what I was or what I looked like.

...How did I know that?

"Listen, to me." My master spoke, snapping me out of my thoughts. "In a few hours, a little girl is going to come to our domain. You are to follow her every word, and protect her as your own when you've reached maturity."

Little girl? Protect her? Was this woman completely unaware of the fact I was born a few seconds ago? I don't know anything about her or this young six-year-old that's...how do I know that? Scratch that, how am I already knowing I'll reach maturity within a year's time? In fact, I already know everything I'm capable of, everything I can do!

Whoever this woman was, she was the one behind it all. She's responsible for my creation and my birth, thus making her my Ultimate Master, at least until she transferred that over to this mysterious girl I had yet to see.

"Hey name, is Ruby..."

...

...

The brief excitement Ruby felt upon seeing her mother's face slowly changed to fear once more. Strolling passed her mother, who only stood there with a look of worry on her face, were several of the beowolves, the very same Ruby passed time and again throughout these halls. Was this all a trick? Was her grandmother secretly some evil queen bent on world domination? Was she going to feed her to the monsters around her and keep Ruby from living happily ever after?!

She didn't get much time to contemplate this. With one step after the other, the Grimm approached. Some of them growled slightly, others gruffed and huffed here and there. But all of them stood side by side as they neared the innocent Ruby. Ruby could only tremble with fear once more as she clutched Salem's leg in fear, holding onto her for dear life. It almost amused Salem how innocent and frightened the young girl was being. It was almost cute.

And I still had no idea who or what was going on! All I know was that I was at the back of the line of a large crowd of Grimm, all of these beowolves or whoever holding up the spot and blocking the way. I couldn't see anything ahead of them save for my master, the goddess who granted life upon me within a few short minutes, the one who I would sacrifice tooth and claw for at a moment's notice, the one whose only order for me was to grow up with some girl I've never met before, and protect her as my own pup.

Were all pups at the age of 3 hours given the same job so soon?

It was only while I stared off to the malevolent goddess up above that I suddenly sensed an all too familiar scent- Fear. It was mind numbing, delicious. the very scent that would normally drag me and my brethren wild with excitement as we feasted on the flesh of those pitiful humans, whatever they looked like.

So why the heck was our master telling us to stay at bay? Before me the dozen of beowolves finally stopped at attention, following their orders and missing out on what possibly could've been the meal of a lifetime! Fearful humans were the tastiest to my understanding, and there was no better food than a fresh ripe-with-fear human who continued to cower at our presence.

Though, come to think of it, among the various things I was learning just from mere existence, I never once felt hungry since I was brought to life. Didn't young pups like me need to eat to survive? Actually, now that I think about it, I never once felt hungry or the urge to use the bathroom like most creatures on Remnant. Did I even have a gender?

... Ah, there it is. Yup, I'm a girl. True as true.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to ask after standing around for a boring minute.

"What are we standing around for?!" I yelled. Almost instantly, the sense of fear and dread that emanated from up ahead was slowly dwindling.

This was bad. If that source of fear was dwindling away then that meant someone was already getting the main course of the meal! There was no way I could allow that until I at least saw who was up ahead with our master, so I grumbled to myself as I started dashing between the legs of my fellow Grimm.

The closer I got to the front, the more the fear continued to dissipate, which was more confusing because there wasn't even the scent of fresh blood in the air. If someone was already eating her, there should've been cries of pain and misery as my fellows devoured their flesh, just like any other time Grimm came across the pathetic humans.

Finally at long last, I made it through the thick of the horde of Grimm, and the words that greeted me caught me completely by surprise.

"A puppy!"

I finally met the person in question. All feelings of wanting to devour this person or wanting to hurt them were instantly replaced with feelings of excitement and joy

This was Ruby Fall, the person who would eventually be my own pup. Why did I know these things? Why did I know anything for that matter? I don't know. The only thing I could guess was that my master was the one sending me these details, perhaps on a subconscious level that she wasn't aware of, or maybe she was aware of it and her knowledge of the world were being transmitted to me with each passing second? Who the heck cared at this point. The only thing I cared about was finally meeting my new master, my tail wagging endlessly with excitement.

"I made it just for you, sweetie." Salem stated, patting her head. "It will be your shadow, and as you grow, it will be your guardian."

"My shadow?" Ruby asked curiously.

For some reason, my next compulsion was to suddenly jump into Ruby's shadow. Why? I knew about shadows- they make it harder to see you in the dark and easier to sneak up on the unsuspecting humans so you can devour them. It seemed self explanatory to me.

Like all my other thoughts, I simply complied with the order, immediately jumping headfirst into the shadow with both excitement and curiosity as to what was going to happen. To my surprise, and to that of this Ruby child, I'm sure, I didn't collide into the pavement. The next thing I know, I'm in a vast void surrounding Ruby, only able to see her perfectly and everything within an arm's reach of her, it was so freaky!

I was surprised. The human was surprised. My queen was the only one not surprised.

Feeling giddy to myself, I barked with excitement as I stared back out of the shadow itself, just as Ruby drew near it for a closer look. Seeing her just made me feel so excited and happy, like I belonged with her to no end! Immediately upon her gasping, I jumped back out of the shadow and tackled her to the ground, kissing her with my endless slobbery licks as she squirmed in place.

"Ah-! S-Stop, that tickles! Hahaha!" Ruby couldn't help but giggle as she squirmed under the pup's ticklish tongue.

"Do you like it?" Salem's question was immediately answered as Ruby jumped to her feet, wrapping her arms around Salem's waste as she hugged tightly.

"I love it! Thanks Granny Salem!" She squealed.

Granny Salem? No amount of orders would keep me from questioning that use of identification.

Hey come to think of it, what were my orders at this point? I didn't feel any commands screaming at me from the back of my head any longer, I didn't feel any compulsion to obey my master. Did I suffer a stroke? The only one in this entire room I felt compelled to follow at this point was Ruby. I couldn't explain it but being here, in her presence, it made me feel joy, happiness.

Her happiness was my happiness, and despite not knowing a single thing about this girl, I was going to see to it that she was always happy and safe.

"W-Whooa!" Ruby squealed as she was suddenly lifted from the back of her jacket. The next thing she knew, she was being tossed backwards until she landed on the back of one of the large beowolves. Before she could even ask, she was holding onto the rugged bone-like spine of the beast as the creature practically galloped it's way out the doors with the others. It was official. These Grimm were not scary. "Weeeee!" Ruby squeaked, waving to her mother as the Grimm raced down the halls. "I got a puppyyyyyyyy!" She cheered to her mother as she disappeared down the halls.

"Hey, wait for me!" I barked as I scurried after them.

This was the beginning of, what I can only describe as, an interesting relationship.

...

...

 _ ***Crackle!***_

"Ahh!" My pup yelped as she dove under the sheets once more.

No amount of comfort from the older girl next to her would be enough to comfort her apparently. It took some getting used to this new lifestyle, watching over my pup as she grew up within the last two years. Today she was experiencing a new kind of terror, one that came in the form of a tremendous thunderstorm. It wasn't enough that her mother was late on a day like today, the weather went from dark to a sickly green sky as the sirens were going off nonstop.

Thankfully, their safety was all but assured. Being atop one of the largest hotels in the city, being a luxurious penthouse suite, one of the many accommodations they were given were a security system that bunkered down over all the glass around the top floor. Metallic sheets covered every panel of glass as the sirens did, and the TVs were built with an automated camera system allowing them to see outside of the building in cases of extreme emergencies, just like this tornado passing through the town. While it normally would've been ideal to head to the bottom of a large building such as this, the penthouse was designed to survive an attack from a group of Nevermores, making it one of the safest areas within the city at this time.

Unfortunately for my pup, it was also one of the scariest. Throughout the last half hour, all she heard was the sounds of miscellaneous things being scraped against the shutters of the windows, the ominous siren going off every other minute, and the dreaded sound of thunder crackling in the sky immediately following every bolt of lightning. It was understandable for someone so young to be terrified in this condition. Despite the efforts of this strange sibling she didn't have any relationship to, which still confused me, she found herself shriveling with fear as she sat upon the bed with Neo right beside her, watching the flashing images on the TV as the storm passed through the city. Even though she didn't want to watch any of the scary storm, Neo needed to in order to keep tabs on how long the storm lasted, and to see if Cinder was nearing the building. With the security measures as strong as they were, she wouldn't know if Cinder was banging outside the Penthouse's main entrance or if it was just another piece thing scraping against the shutters.

For the most part Cinder was safe, that much I knew as a fact. She was a strong motherly figure to my pup who cared for her almost as much as I did. She always made sure she was happy, always made sure she was well taken care of, and she always did what she could to provide fun for this otherwise cramped environment. The Penthouse was spacious enough for anything, but my pup's spent the last several years here as far as I'm aware of. I don't even know the last time she's been let out of here, save for when she brings that weird cat girl into the building every month to play.

I wasn't too keen on her meeting new people either. There were only a pawful of people I knew around here, less than that I even trusted. Why should I trust them anyway? They were all a bunch of thieves who my pup trained with on a daily basis. There was one cretin that tried to get away with harming my precious pup during a sparring session. The crook took advantage of my pup's innocence, failing to land a single blow on her no matter how hard he tried. And why would he be able to anyway? My pup was a professional after all.

Then he took advantage of her. After being dealt another blow from my pup's mighty strength, he pretended to be in massive pain and convulsion, getting my pup to let her guard down. The moment she neared him, before she knew what he was doing, he swiped her across the face with the pipe he was using. The sight of her crying and in pain out of the painful injury was all the satisfaction the man needed. He thought he couldn't get in trouble with the bosses since it was her decision to agree with it, and he knew Neo couldn't argue against him since they sparred under her supervision, she was just as likely to get in trouble for it if she did. He took perfect advantage of both girls' innocence, and there was nothing either of them could do about it.

There was, however, one major flaw in his plan; he messed with my pup. It would've been something if he injured her badly unintentionally, but the fool was signing his own death warrant by trying to hide his feelings. I was an embodiment of darkness. I could feel his emotions and his intent no matter how hard he tried to push it away. He wanted to injure her beyond all else, simply out of petty spite. He had no remorse for his actions, all he had was a smile on his face and a sense of pride in his emotions.

All he needed was to turn around to see me materialize there to make him regret his entire life. I wasted no time engulfing half his body in my entire mouth, thrashing him about in my massive jaws as I bit the hell out of him. His screams of agony and fear only fueled my hatred for this detestable human as he cried out for mercy. The taste of his blood disgusted me, I wanted nothing from this human other than his untimely end as his bones crunched beneath my fangs. When his screams died down on one side I was biting, I only tossed him slightly before gnawing down on his flesh more, tossing him about the floor to make sure he writhed in despair for his crimes.

By the time the pup's mother and associate entered the room, I already bit his leg off. I wasn't entirely aware of my condition until the mother brought me back to attention. I was letting my emotions overtake me, my instincts and hatred for this man get the better of me. I didn't realize that my pup had been taken out of the room by the time I regained my senses again. My ears drooped before the woman, the mother shushing me quietly as she tried to ease my rage. I could sense a feeling of understanding from this woman, knowing the reasons for my rage, and, surprisingly, a sense of pride for my decision. She was glad I punished the human in the name of her pup, though I'm not sure if she would've taken it as far or not.

That was the day I promised myself I would remain in control, only coming out when my pup willed it or needed it most. Thats why I found myself within the room itself, my ears drooping at the sight of my saddened pup. She needed her mother, some source of comfort to tell her that everything would be alright.

And I was the only one who could provide that at this time.

Eyeing the sheets surrounding them, I carefully grabbed the edge of the mattress within my jaws, causing both girls to jump slightly from fright and surprise at the sudden motion as I placed it in the middle of the floor around me. I couldn't communicate how safe she would be, she wouldn't know anything I said that came out as mere growls and barks. The only thing I could communicate was with my body. Stepping around the two young girls, both of them eyeing me with confusion, I pawed my way around the two until I got my body surrounding them, placing my head next to my young pup who quickly nuzzled into me.

"I'm scared, Wolfie..." Ruby mumbled out as she sniffled. If I could smile, I would've to show her she had nothing to fear. The most she could be content with were my kisses, licking her teary face as she cried into my furry neck. The older sibling smiled at me as she nuzzled over to my pup once more.

I couldn't make the lightning go away, I couldn't make the thunder sound pleasing, but I could the one thing I did best and be there for her.

I would forever remain by her side. I would always protect her.

...

...

"Ahh!" My pup yelped as she was struck away once more. This was torture to watch for me. How could I be expected to watch while my pup continued to be injured beyond compare? She was battered over here, bruised over there, I don't think there was a single piece of her body that went without an injury. "Huff... Huff..." Yet like every time, my pup returned to her feet as she willed me to stay away. I never felt so conflicted between two different sides, one which obviously could've resulted in my pups death!

"Kehehehehe..." The scorpion Faunus cackled as he slurped his lips. I couldn't get a read on this mad man, there were too many emotions swirling within his heart at once. There was anger, confusion, sadness, happiness, excitement, regret, surprise, tiredness, mystery, shock, and it all just looped over and over again in an endless spiral. I don't know if my kin were given fear, or if they could sense my own, but this man deeply troubled me. Not enough to keep me from wanting to protect my pup, just enough to make me question his motives. "Had enough yet?"

"You... huff... You wish..." My pup struggled to raise her weapon, clearly reaching her breaking point. Breaking soon turned to broken as she was suddenly swept off her feet in the blink of an eye, finding her gut elbowed painfully as it slammed onto the ground beneath her by the Faunus' powerful strike. "Augh!" She cried out, doing her best not to show any tears.

I was reaching my own breaking point here. This single being was pushing the limits of how far I could go before I disobeyed, and whether or not I could handle him was about to be proven any second now. It wasn't just enough for him to be grinning in every situation like this, he had to go on and smile every step of the way, taking great pleasure and enjoyment in everything he did. He didn't show the least bit of remorse for his actions as he jumped back to his own two feet, pressing down tightly against the neck of my pup as she tried to push his foot away, her weapon getting knocked away by Tyrian's tail.

"Just say you surrender and be done with it." Tyrian stated.

"Nggghh... Aggghh..." I couldn't tell if she was trying to say it or struggling to just breath, the pressure on her neck choking the life out of her.

That was it, I couldn't take it anymore! I'll be damned if I allow her to order me against her own death, even if this guy could kill me just as easily! I wasn't going to let him do as he pleased-

"Tyrian!" A familiar voice hissed, silencing all sound and emotion within the room. It was my previous master, my beloved goddess standing firmly at attention as she always did, looking over the "battleground" where my pup was currently training. While he wasn't afraid of anything like he usually was when she was angered, he didn't like to press his luck like Watts did, respectfully removing his foot from Ruby's neck as he bowed at attention.

"Ah, my dear goddess. How can I help you?" He begged for any sort of order she could give him.

"You can start by helping Ruby off the ground and returning her weapon." She declared. All emotions of fear and frustration once held within him quickly dwindled, I could feel it, as he hurriedly grabbed Ruby's scythe with his tail and pulling her up to her feet by her hands. The goddess looked over the pup from where she stood. I would never prod or try to dig into the recesses of my goddess's mind, but due to my Grimm instincts, I couldn't help but feel an instantaneous hint of worry from her person. It troubled her to look over the numerous bruises along Ruby's body, the blackened eye she kept firmly shut, and the small bit of bleeding she had from her lip. "Now you can explain to me why you felt it necessary to attack Ruby to begin with?"

"It was mine, Gran." Ruby quickly announced, rubbing her sore left shoulder. "I wanted to spar with him, I ordered it."

"I see." She didn't like a single thing uttered from the young one's voice. She knew Tyrian would never try to go against her wishes, so either he was suicidal in an attempt to try and kill Ruby, or Ruby herself had to order him to do so in the first place. She made it clear since day one when she moved in that he was to follow her orders as kindly and respectfully as he would her own. He would've been drowned in a pool of disappointment and discouragement if he ever thought to disobey. "Tyrian, you may leave us now. Ruby, come with me." She ordered. Tyrian did nothing more than bow his head as Ruby slumped over to her Grandmother's side, walking along sorely as she did her best to keep up within the dark hallways. All I could do was growl at the scorpion man before following along my pup right behind her.

When the hallway showed nothing more than darkness from both ends, the two women walking alongside the interior of this castle, only then did my goddess speak. "Is anyone around?"

"No..." Ruby mumbled with a wince of pain.

"Good." A strange sense of warmth emanated from my goddess as she brought Ruby along to the pup's bedroom, and then into the bathroom itself with my child still in hand, the child tossing the scythe to the side of her bed. Seeing how my pup had yet to return me to the shadows, I found myself pacing about the room for a short while, deciding to rest on the bed for my pup as I overheard the two speaking. All I could hear at the time was the sound of running water, some ounce of coldness evaporating from it, as the goddess rubbed Ruby's sore eye with a rag. "How many times do I have to tell you, dear? Only train with Hazel or your sister if I'm not around."

"Ngh..." Ruby gritted her teeth as she tried to keep from groaning, not wanting to show any sign of weakness before Salem. "But they keep taking it easy on me because of who I am." She whined. I couldn't really tell if it was from her feelings or the pain she was in at this point. Neither one would surprise me. "And Uncle Watts keeps saying I'll never grow into a strong warrior unless I'm fighting someone who's actually trying to hurt me."

"Egh, Watts..." Salem shook her head in annoyance before continuing to clean the blood off Ruby's lip. "You shouldn't worry about getting to that level of fighting yet, you're still learning."

"But that's the problem, I'm always learning!" Ruby complained, getting the goddess to pause since talking. "I'm almost thirteen Granny, and I'm never going to get any better unless I start taking my training and lessons seriously!"

"Ruby..." I could feel the warmth from my goddess continuing to grow ever so slightly, touched by my pup's words. "There's a vast difference in taking your training seriously and going off to get yourself killed. You know Tyrian takes everything he does seriously, and..." She looked back into the room, seeing if there were any other prying eyes eavesdropping into he conversation, then kneeled to my pup once more. "And you know I don't want you getting seriously hurt. You're only injured as you are now because he was holding himself back, imagine if he didn't care who he was fighting and actually wanted to kill you."

"I-I know, but..." Ruby turned her head away as she teared up slightly. This only earned a small smile from my goddess as she turned Ruby's head back to her, wiping the tear from her eye with her cloth, along with any blood she could get in the process. "I just want to be useful to everyone, like my mom..."

"Ruby..." She paid no mind as Ruby rubbed her head into her stomach, sniffling as Salem simply patted her head. "I know you want to prove yourself to us... to me... but I don't want you throwing your life away just to accomplish something as basic as training. There are more important things worth dying for than just to prove you can do something you can't."

"Mmh... I'm sorry..." She mumbled wiping her nose into her hand.

"From now on, tell me before you try to train with Tyrian. I wouldn't mind watching your progress from time to time." She said with a calm smile "Alright?"

"Ok... I'm sorry again." Ruby repeated as she took the cold rag from her grandmother. Salem gave her another nod as she walked along with the near-teen girl.

"That's better. Now come along, Ruby. I want to introduce you to more Grimm."

"Oooh! Can I see that creepy one with the horse body?" Ruby asked curiously. "Watts said it was really tough and strong, but I saw a picture of it and it looked funny to me."

"Hmhm, we'll see Ruby, we'll see. What other things has Watts been telling you about?"

They continued out the door as I submerged into my pup's shadow once more. The goddess couldn't hide her kindness in front of Ruby, no matter how hard she tried to. It was one of my goddess's most conflicting issues since this child came into her life for the last two years. Everything about my pup fascinated my goddess and inspired her, for more than just her eyes. She wanted to know about my pup for more than personal gain, something I never thought I would see from my dear goddess. She wanted to be a part of this pup's life, someone she could actually come to care for.

The fact she even had a sense of true caring was something I never thought I would see from my goddess since my birth...

...

...

"Zzz..." I awoke to the same sound I usually do when my pup is asleep. Much like all the other days, the pup accidentally summoned me from right under her as she snoozed, currently resting on my back as I tried to rest myself. Fortunately she didn't have to worry about keeping my existence secret from her friends, just those dreadful enemies surrounding her like Ozpin and Glynda.

It's been a charming few weeks since we started this school, or Ruby did to be more accurate. Like everything else she did, she did her school duties respectfully and dignified with as much dignity as she could muster on a daily basis.

To me, that was plenty. To everyone else, that was very little.

Despite being with her nearly all her life, I had a very thin grasp on everything she was trying to do here, everything my previous master wanted from her when she first attended this dangerous academy. She was looking for something, anything, of great importance. Every day and every night, when she finished her classes and daily activities, she would always scout around, looking for this one peculiar thing that she needed most. I would be more than happy to help her with her endeavor, but without any knowledge of these strange "Made-Ins" or any scent of them, I couldn't even begin to comprehend what to look for.

The most I could do for her was do what I always did; be the protective Wolf mother my last master wanted me to be. I kept her safe from the numerous Grimm that fell before her, and threatened away those who would worry her otherwise. At least I tried to on a dozen occasions, but every time I tried to spawn, I could only materialize slightly from within my Pup's strange cloak, and she would always push me away any time I tried to help her.

Didn't she want my help? Didn't she need me? All I would do is disembowel those who would harm or scare my little pup. Isn't that what all mothers wanted to do?

Almost by clockwork, she started to slide a little to the side of my back like she usually did whenever she summoned me in her sleep, nearly falling off my back that was bigger than her makeshift bunk bed. And just like all those other times, I would grab her gently by the back of her night shirt or her blanket if it was still wrapped around her, and carefully place her on my back once more. Sometimes it would be just on the side of me, others right between my front paws when I wanted to keep her close. It all depended on whether I needed to keep her close and safe, or wanted her to be comfortable. For now, I just chose what would possibly keep her resting peacefully and content.

After all, with me around, I would always make sure she was happy and safe. She had nothing to fear.

"Gooooooooood morning, Wolfie!" Nora greeted excitedly as I opened my eyes again.

"Rouuuuuuuuww!" I screamed in fear, startling the Pup's sleeping friends from their slumber, including my own pup who slipped off my back in fright.

It was the evil one! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it!

Wolfie couldn't help it, how could she? She could face an onslaught of Grimm for her young one. She could stare down any opponent and make them tremble in fear if they so much as thought about harming Ruby. But this was the unholy one, the gospel of evil, the greatest arch nemesis in the history of nemesi. Chaos incarnate, the demon of all tummy scratchers!

She couldn't do anything except panic, scurrying across the bedroom like before as Nora tried to chase her. She was completely unaware of the loud pounding Wolfie's running was creating every time she ran about the room, toppling the beds all over and the furniture that stood amongst it. It was no surprise that among the things tossed around were the two older girls of Ruby's team, Blake Belladonna and Pyrrha Nikos, both tossed about with blankets and mattress tossed atop of them as they awoke with a jolt.

To be fair, it wasn't entirely Nora's fault Wolfie was scared of her, she just didn't know how much she herself was scaring the wolf. Wolfie was among the furriest, fluffiest, and surprisingly cutest of Grimm she ever came across, as far as Grimm go at least. There was nothing she wanted more than to cuddle it, pet it, play with it, hug it, and so forth every time she came across the wolf mother, all in the hopes of filling that missing void of not having Ren on her team. And she knew deep down that Wolfie wanted the same thing!

Too bad she was completely wrong about that.

By the time any of them could even comprehend what was happening, All she could do was grin as she wiggled her ready-to-scratch-the-belly fingers as she neared the cornered wolf grimm who was trembling in a corner of the room.

"I got you now, Wolf-eeeeep!" Nora yelped as she was suddenly pulled back from behind. She was met with the familiar sight of an annoyed Pyrrha, the Red-headed girl irritated about having this conversation for possibly the 17th time by now.

"Nora, we've been over this; Wolfie's scared of you." She reminded as she showed her the ruined bedroom. Beds were tossed about, the blankets were hung upon the windows and shelves, and all the books were scattered here and there with the bookshelves being escue. Blake herself was currently trying to dig for a dazed Ruby who was currently buried under several mattresses and blankets. It only took her several seconds to find her close friend who still had swirls in her eyes, trying to shake the dizziness out of her head.

"Oh...whoops..."

*knock*

*knock*

*knock*

"Hello? Guuuys?" Yang could be heard calling from the other side. "Are you okay in there?" Her concern was understandable, seeing how the evil one and I nearly trashed the entire room from top to bottom. The others panicked as they usually did as three of them headed towards the door before Yang could open it, looking at her innocently and as casual as possible as they tried to explain the morning's earthquake that appeared to emanate from the room they were in.

I wouldn't understand it at the time, but somehow they managed to convince the yellow devil that one of their semblances was the cause of the disturbance. If anyone knew the evil one as I did, they wouldn't be surprised.

None of this stuff mattered to me though as I looked to my still-sleepy master, the pup stretching in the bathroom as she shut the large door behind me. My ears drooped with regret and worry for my young master, trying to think of a way to apologize for the havoc and rampage I caused moments ago. Maybe I could eat Weiss' homework again? That made her laugh last time even though she nearly got in trouble when the white girl accused her of stealing it.

Seeing the troubled look I was giving her, my pup simply smiled as she hugged my head. "It's okay Wolfie, I'm not mad at anything you ever do." She said, scratching behind my ears just the way I liked it. My master was too kind for me. Sometimes I hated it, seeing how vulnerable her kindness made her. At others, I loved it and the joy she gave to others. She was truly a benevolent pup.

"You're a good dog, Wolfie."

...

...

...

 _ **A/N: Hooftah, another grand bit of writing for the masses! Hope you all enjoyed this first-ever bonus episode. I know for sure I did for the most part, granted the thinking portion of this fanfic and creation was a bit tricky to pull off, I think it came off pretty good. Again, this was a reward for Sani2341. I hope it met your expectations and wasn't too rushed. And don't worry about some scenes you wanted, you'll see plenty of good stuff from the main series itself ^^**_

 _ **Anyway, hope you all enjoyed this once again as the first ever grand Bonus Episode of the series! To win one, either continue being a supportive fan, do a piece of fan art for the picture (and has to be good and not sloppy stick figures XP), or participate in one of the various events I hold for this fic, mostly in the form of Fanfic contests :D!**_

 _ **I hope you all enjoyed! Like, fav, review, and be ready for tomorrows episode :D! I actually finished that first and this one on the same day, but I wanted to get this one out first since it's longer and it's been awhile. Either way hope you all enjoyed and see you tomorrow!**_


	37. Vol 1 Episode 11: Jaunedice Pt 1

**_A/N: Just a good 50words under 6k. Sorry for the shortness, but all honesty, considering this chapter is based on a 4 min episode, I think that's pretty fair XP._**

 ** _Hooftah, been a good long while since my last update guys, so writing might be a little stale as I ease back into it. I have several reasons for my long hiatus, most of which include writing like several different chapters at once (none of which are done save for this one), and only getting a third of them all the way through, been having a bit of a writers block for awhile. But have no fear, I'm back and going to do everything in my power to keep up with the writing. What's more, with school coming along, that means I'll be at school more often which = less distractions and more writing :D!_**

 ** _..._**

 ** _..._**

 ** _..._**

 ** _~This will be the day we waited for~_**

 _Cinder and salem are seen standing on a balcony on the side of the latter's home looking out in the distance to where Vale would be. As they look up to a Nevermore flying overhead, the camera pans up as well, showing an orange sky that slowly turns blue._

 ** _~This will be the day we open up the door~_**

 _Returning back down from its view of the sky, we see Ruby opening the door to Beacon's main hall, Wolfie peaking out behind her, Blake standing next to her, oblivious to the Grimm's presence._

 ** _~I don't wanna hear your absolution~_**

 _The Camera 'flies' through the hallways until it settles on Ozpin going through illegible notes on his scroll next to a photo of young miss Fall._

 ** _~Hope your ready for a revolution~_**

 _Outside his window, WYJR can be seen standing together. As the screen is overtaken by a storm of white petals, Weiss pushes Jaune a bit away._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of new solutions~_**

 _One of the petals remain before a black background and is revealed to be Ruby as she pulls out [insert weapon name] and starts twirling her Scythe around, leaving a burning crimson Halo above herself._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of blood evolution~_**

 _The red halo turns into Wolfie's red Iris as the camera zooms out revealing the pool of blood beneath the Grimm. before he dissolves into a shadow and to the side._

 ** _~In time your heart will open minds~_**

 _The shadow flows beneath Ruby cloak who is standing with her team, a conflicted expression on her face. Soon though it is replaced with a look of determination as the Camera pans once more._

 ** _~A Story will be told~_**

 _When the camera settles on Ruby's viewpoint we see Amber kneeling before Cinder, before the camera zooms back and her surroundings turn into the vault beneath Beacon._

 ** _~And Victory is in a Simple Soul~_**

 _We see a final shot of a young Ruby hugging her family, which reveals itself to be an old picture in Salem's Hand who is enjoying tea served by Neo._

Fighting.

One of the primary roles of every Hunter and Huntress in existence. Whether it's against one another for the sake of a festival or Tournament, fighting against bandits, thugs, criminals, or to slay the notorious Grimm that inhabit this world alongside each and every human, a Hunter's job is never finished until one side is defeated, creating a never ending spiral of violence, each side creating their own additional factor of Hope and Despair. And it was the very thing every Hunter trained for at this prestigious academy known as Beacon.

At the present, two well known students were currently undergoing a rigorous training exercise, supervised by the teacher Glynda Goodwitch herself. Jaune, the average all-around student who did his best to fit in and prove he was strong enough to be called a hunter, was up against an equally well-known student known as Cardin Winchester, the leader of team CRDL and school bully of this place. He didn't care who he picked on or his reasons for it, all that mattered was showing his dominance and superiority to those around him.

And Jaune was no exception.

No matter how hard he tried, how many strikes he landed with his blade, he had yet to land so much as a scratch on his opponent. He might have had the advantage over Cardin thanks to having two items in hand, his sword and shield respectively, but Cardin's grand mace was overpowering both of those key details, He easily bashed away any defense Jaune could muster, he managed to swipe Jaune's blade to the side, and all it took was a simple kick to push him away, thankfully in the direction of his blade for him to swipe.

"Ahhhh!" Jaune yelled in fury as he charged forward once more. Cardin could grin with pride as casually blocked Jaune's attack with his own weapon. No amount of force or confidence could shake Cardin's own determination, the blonde already being out of breath by this point in time. To Jaune's credit, he wasn't backing down from his present attack, but Cardin wasn't giving any leeway in the slightest.

Meanwhile, all Jaune's friends could do was watch from the seats at the current demonstration. Among them Team RBPN and Team WYJR were naturally sitting close together, seeing how many of them were friends with people from the opposing teams, several of them sitting side by side or in rows of three.

"Shouldn't you tell Jaune what to do, Weiss?" Ruby whispered to her right.

"I can't do that during a demonstration, Ruby. Besides, I can't just tell Jaune how to do everything when it comes to fighting or he'll never be able to figure it out for himself when he needs to." The Schnee remarked.

She wasn't lying about her reasoning, and it's not like she liked watching getting his butt kicked either. Every word of it was true, and Jaune did need to learn how to settle his own fights. If Weiss had to instruct him on every little detail he would never become a true reliable hunter like he always wanted to be. On top of that, if a day ever came where he needed to fight his own battle, and no one was around to help him, his death was only assured.

It was a sad reality that she knew, and one Pyrrha was too painfully aware of. Jaune was a dear friend to her most out of the many people she came to know of, and it agonized her to see someone like Jaune getting his butt whooped so easily. He never backed down, nor did he ever show any signs of surrendering, yet that mattered very little to a tournament style duel, even more in times of great danger.

And it only troubled Ruby more when she realized there really was no counterargument to that.

"This is the part where you lose." Cardin informed, slowly pushing back against the weaker student.

"Over my dead-!"

*Bam!*

"Oof-!" Jaune yelped as he slowly dropped to his knees.

Every creature has it's weakness. For some, it's their achilles heel. Others, it's the sight of their own reflection. For every man like Jaune, it was that very sensitive part between their legs, and while it was a good couple inches away from the region, the very same Cardin cheaply kneed him when the opportunity presented itself. Again, it was a cheap tactic, and unfair in most cases, but like any other situation, in a real life or death battle, no one would hesitate to do whatever it took to win, just like Ruby remembered her mother always telling her about.

Hunters never played fair. Hunters never cared about those around them other than for facial value and personal support. And hunters didn't care who got hurt in the way of their victory, so long as they could turn out as the heroes of the day. Cardin was no exception.

None of her friends and allies were... except maybe Blake.

Still reeling in from the pain, Jaune groaned as he looked above himself, seeing Cardin grinning with excitement as he readied his weapon. Jaune was already down, unable to defend himself from any blow Cardin could deliver, just the way the bully preferred it. Jaune had the gall to disobey him when instructed to back down and surrender like the weakling Cardin knew him to be, so it only seemed fair to break his kneecaps to teach him a lesson. After all, Negative Reinforcement went a long way in any child's and teen's life, and as he raised his mace to deliver the next blow, he knew Jaune would never forget; never disobey Cardin.

*bzzzzz*

"Huh? Ugggh..." Cardin groaned in annoyance.

"Cardin, that's enough." Glynda instructed calm yet firmly.

The familiar sound of a buzzer went off as the lights flashed back on. It was more than a good indicator that the fight was officially over and Cardin was supposed to stop. He had no problems picking on the students when able, whether or not the teachers where present in the area, but if they told him specifically to, he wouldn't go against orders. With little more than a smug look to Jaune, he holstered his weapon as he walked off stage, following the direction of his profile picture projecting his Aura level.

Cardin's was perfectly in the green, and Jaune's had dropped to the mere fourth by the time this test was over.

"Students, as you can see, Mr. Arc's aura has now dropped into the red." She explained as typed into her scroll. Jaune shook his head with a groan as he clutched his stomach, slowly rising from the ground where he lied in pain. "In a tournament style duel, this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle, and that the official may call the match. Mister Arc, it's been weeks now. Please try to refer to your scroll during combat. Gauging your aura will help you decide when it is appropriate to attack, or when it is better to move move to a more... defensive strategy. We wouldn't want you to be gobbled up by a Beowulf, now would we?"

"Heh, speak for yourself." Cardin teased with a smug grin as he walked off the stage. Jaune shook his head at this as he pushed himself off the stage, not giving his friends any notice as they tried to encourage him for his effort.

Effort was the only thing he could see himself giving anymore.

"Remember students, the Vytal Festival is only a few months away." Glynda reminded, murmurs of excitement filling the crowd as they cheered silently. "It won't be long before new students start arriving in Vale, so keep practicing! Those who choose to compete in the combat tournament will be representing all of Vale."

As excited as it got the white-hooded girl, she didn't feel it was of any import. For the last month now, she had been dedicated and searching for any sign as to where the Maiden might've gone. She did some snooping around, asked rumors to different faces about some "strange girl", which probably didn't help since there were people and Faunus of all varieties in this place, and so forth, and had yet to find any trace of the Maiden at all.

Narrowing down her options, there were a few things she could officially note: 1, the maiden was definitely within Beacon itself somewhere, there was no arguing with that. After all, her great family was on top of the situation and was well aware of all possibilities as to where she could be, especially after her skirmish with her mother and title-given stepsiblings weeks beforehand. There was no way they could've gotten their information wrong, people like Watts were too proud of their intellect to allow themselves to be wrong about any one thing.

2, wherever the maiden was, it was definitely somewhere unmarked. She wasn't going to be behind your typical closed off area, or your "Staff Only" doorway, she was going to be somewhere out of reach or somewhere Ozpin's enemies would't think of. Given all the exploring and advice she was given before their plan was set into motion, she narrowed down the Maiden's whereabouts to somewhere within the academy of Beacon itself. That might've sound obvious on a normal basis, but Ruby checked every outdoor environment and building just to be sure, she literally couldn't leave a single stone unturned or a branch unchecked.

And 3rd, wherever the Maiden was, it wasn't well guarded. There might've been security measures for sure, which would explain why she had yet to find a clue of the maiden within the last month, but she definitely didn't have to worry about numerous guards roaming about. Since coming to this place, the only shuttle activity they ever got outside of trips to Vale and field trips were simple food deliveries and such. Bedding, possible clothing, and food were the only sources of transportation ever coming in and out of this place on a weekly notice. And while there was the possibility it was simply security disguised as nothing more than food transportation, she knew Ozpin wouldn't risk repeatedly using such a tactic unless he wanted to draw attention to the Maiden's whereabouts should anyone ever find out or snoop around.

Whether or not these recent results were useful or proved to be a waste of effort on her part wasn't in her place to say- only her dear Granny knew whether or not her time was wasted. And, given the lack of yelling or issues she's received on her mother's end about her grandmother's disapproval, she took that as a positive sign... except for the near-panic attack her mother called her about when her grandmother announced how the rest of her teammates discovered Wolfie's existence. That took a little bit of an explanation to get over...

Still, she had to admit, for a bunch of devious coldhearted Hunters and Huntresses she knew them all to be, they seemed pretty normal. As her family constantly reminded her, it was nothing more than a charade, and one Ruby was entirely aware of. Even if they actually were as innocent and kind as Ruby saw them to be, this was all before they would officially become official Hunters. Once that happened, they all would've been nothing more than coldhearted monsters that Ruby came to know them as.

Heck, she already knew of dozens of people already like that, like Cardin and his crew. Not once since meeting them had she seen any sort of kinder side from their person, always strutting about like they owned the entirety of Beacon, and not caring for who they picked on. They were a prime example of everything Ruby knew them to be, making it only more important that she find a way to complete her mission and see her mother's and grandmother's dreams come true.

Which probably would'e been easier to help with if she knew specifically what their biggest dream was.

...

...

"So there we were... in the middle of the Night!"

"It was day." Res corrected Nora.

"We were surrounded by Ursai..."

"They were Beowolves."

"Dozens of them!"

"Two of them."

"But they were no match! And in the end, Ren and I took them down, and made a boatload of Lien selling Ursa skin rugs!"

This is pretty much how every morning in the Lunchroom started, with one of the students going off about a story, whether real or fake, and then going on to talk about their classes and the rest of their day. Like everything else they did, the members of team RBPN and WYJR were all seated together at one of the many long rows of tables, talking about what they've been through and reminiscing about some of the exams and tests they've had up to this point. Many of them were easy, some of them hard, and all around boring, except for the ones involving battles against the Grimm themselves.

"Ah... She's been having this reoccurring dream for nearly a month now." Ren sighed. It didn't matter if they were on different teams, Nora never passed any and all free time she had to hang out with Ren. As long as it didn't interfere with any team-related tasks or homework, Weiss was completely fine with this.

"Still sounds like fun to me." Ruby commented. "I was dreamed I was riding a giant Nevermore when I was seven. It was fun until I ended up falling out of bed."

"Yeah, Grimm pretty sum up most of my dreams." Yang said with a cheeky grin. "No matter how many Grimm keep coming at me, I always bash them away with one fist after the other! I even toppled a giant Grimm the size of a skyscraper in one of them."

"How about you Weiss?" Ruby wondered. "Had any dreams related to the Grimm?"

"Aside from a nightmare or two from when I was little? No. Most of my dreams usually involve nothing more than studying for my future." She stated as she continued to file her nails.

"Eesh, even in your dreams you can't catch a break..." Yang commented, feeling a little sorry for the workaholic Schnee.

"Well that's boring..." Ruby muttered before turning her attention to the other blonde member. "How about you Jaune? You ever beat up any Grimm in your dreams?"

"..."

"...Jaune?"

Jaune barely paid attention as he went over his scroll, observing the aura levels between him and Cardin like the teacher instructed. If there was one thing that annoyed him more than losing to Cardin, it was how much he failed to prove himself on a daily basis. Time after time, out of the many fighters within Beacon, he was the only one, to himself at least, that had yet to improve in combat. Compared to the many students he saw each and every day, he was little more than a trainee at this current level compared to the initiate level many of the students now found themselves at. And he still wasn't as strong as everyone when they started the Initiations for that matter!

What's worse, how was he supposed to prove himself to Weiss of all people!? He knew it, they knew it, and he didn't care if they were being quiet about it out of manners or politeness. He was the weakest member of their team and the one constantly dragging them down. While he might've had a B- average on most of his studies, anything related to his physical prowess proved flawed. Even though Yang was physically stronger than the Team's leader, Weiss, the Schnee still proved herself far above in almost every field of study, and her runes gave her a great edge over battle.

And don't get him started on Ren, the silent guy of the group. He still socialized when able, especially when Nora joined in on any conversation, and he still proved himself more invaluable ten times over to Jaune himself! He was agile, able to react in a split second to any sense of danger, knew the best way to exploit an opponents weakness, He had years of work and talent ahead of him despite the fact his weapons were only a bit more than impressive, and he was still a valuable asset to the team.

"Jaune?" Pyrrha spoke from his left, catching his attention.

"Huh? Yeah?" He blinked in confusion at the numerous eyes looking for an answer from him, only now realizing they asked him something.

"Are you okay?"

"What? Oh, yeah! I'm fine, I'm good..." The expression on his face told the others differently.

"Are you sure? You just seem a little..." Ruby trailed off as she waved her hands a little. ""Not okay"."

"Eh, guys I'm fine... Seriously, look! Hahaha...haaaaa..." No about of forced laughter would convince them. They all knew of his troubles, they all knew of his issues with fighting, and they definitely knew how much bullying he suffered on a daily basis.

Before any of them could question further on his troubles, they were all caught by the sound of laughter at the next table over. To none of their surprise, there was the infamous Cardin, once again picking on another fellow student, and one of the first people Ruby met since coming here, Velvet Scarlatina. If he was picking on her for another reason, that would've been nothing short of a miracle. Like he did for the numerous other people he picked on, he wasn't picking on her for the usual reasons like when he picks on Jaune, he only did it because she was a simple Faunus.

Racism and bullying at it's core, just like every other Hunter.

"Jaune, Cardin's has been picking on you since the first week of school." Pyrrha was among the many to know about it.

"W-Who, Cardin Winchester? Naaah, he just likes to mess around, you know? Practical jokes!" Jaune chuckled again with less enthusiasm than before.

"He's a bully." Ruby stated firmly, looking over to the table once more.

"Oh please... Name one time he's ever "bullied" me?" That was a challenge he shouldn't have given.

"Well, there's the numerous times he keeps knocking stuff out of your hands in the hallways."

"Then the times he got you jammed in the doorway with your shield." Blake added as she continued eating her Tuna.

"That time I caught you doing one of his homework assignments." Weiss chipped in.

"W-What? No, that wasn't anything, he was just...busy... and all." Jaune tried to convince.

"And there was that time he shoved you into a locker and blasted you off to the sky." Nora had a fond memory of what she assumed was a shooting star that day, which sadly resulted in nothing more than a bullied student stuffed inside his locker. In all fairness, it probably didn't help it was still daytime too.

"At least twice so far he's tried to push down the stairs, too." Ren said finishing his meal. "You could die easily from that you know."

"O-Oh c'mon guys, he's just goofing, honest..." It was hard to tell if Jaune was coming to terms and realizing the truth of the matter. He could say it as many times as he wanted to but it wouldn't be long till he had to admit it himself. Cardin was bullying him, end of story. "Besides, my aura protects me."

"Jaune, if you ever need help, you can tell us." Pyrrha reminded, trying to comfort him. "We're all friends here."

"Ooh! We'll break his legs!" Nora pumped with excitement. "Let's see him bully people around when he's stuck in a wheelchair!"

"Nora, that's terrible." Ruby shook her head. Any sort of respect or agreement towards her was quickly dashed as she continued, "If we broke his legs, he could still throw things at people and move around too easily. I say we break his arms!" Blake nearly choked on her drink as she coughed, surprised by the statement. While she was more surprised on a slightly disturbed level, Yang was more on a rather impressed level, admitting how Ruby had a point while she probably wouldn't have gone that far herself.

"Ooh! Even better!"

"Guys, guys, guys!" Jaune shook his hands quickly with worry. "Seriously, you don't have to do that, I'm fine."

Many of his friends looked to one another, Weiss included while she tried not to show it. This was one of those tragic case scenarios where the person being bullied was under the impression the person bullying them wasn't really bullying them, all while the bully continued to take advantage of their weakness and did whatever they saw fit for however long they wanted to. It was worse in this case because in these types of cases, the bullied wouldn't report anything they did to them no matter how bad or troubling it got.

In the worst case scenario, the bully would get the victim to do something for them. Sometimes illegal, most of the time dangerous, just as long as they had a little "assistant" at their side, they would command them to do whatever they saw fit. Maybe it was to help them rob someone? Maybe it was together them to injure or harass someone else the bully had a grudge against? In those times, the victim would always play their part forward, doing whatever it took in the hopes of either getting the person to stop bullying them, or thinking they were actually becoming friends, at least to a degree where they wouldn't bully them any longer.

"Besides," he continued, "it's not like he's just a jerk to me, he bullies everyone."

"Ahh! Cut it out, that hurts!" A voice cried out, catching the groups attention once again. As if to prove his point, there was Cardin and the rest of his team again, this time actually pulling on the ears of the bunny girl like Ruby saw them doing before. Only difference now was, aside from the lack of staff, they were doing it in a public area like this and no one was doing anything about it. "Please stop..."

"Hahaha!" Cardin and his goons continued to chuckle, two of them pulling an ear each at different angles."I told you they were real!"

"What a freak!" Russel chuckled.

"Mmmh..." Ruby moaned quietly to herself in anger. It wasn't enough for him to be picking on one of her friends, it was how they were doing it somewhere in the open and nobody bothered to do anything about it! This is why Hunters were scum of the earth, they only helped when someone didn't know them to earn respect, they didn't care if someone they knew was in trouble unless it resulted in praise, glory, and rewards. That was when Ruby looked over to the salad Weiss had in front of her, the girl herself still preoccupied with her nails. "Hey Weiss, is that a tomato?"

"Huh? Yeah why- Wait Ruby no-!" Before Weiss could respond, it was already too late.

*SPLAT!*

"Agh-!" Cardin yelped as he released his grip from Velvet's ear, rubbing his slightly stinging eyes from the fresh tomato suddenly thrown at the left side of his face. Juices of any kind stung and this was no exception. Only a small splatter of it got over his eye compared to the rest of face, but that was hardly his concern as he glared over to the table the tomato came from, seeing a familiar looking hooded girl who quickly went from a cheeky grin to a nervous look as she quickly turned towards her tray, hoping he didn't notice.

Needless to say, it didn't.

"Hey!" He grumbled, marching over to the table with his thugs trailing along. The others did their best to feign ignorance too as they turned to their dishes, wondering what Ruby had planned for this.

"Great, now what?" Weiss whispered over to Ruby as she poked at her salad.

"Don't worry, just follow my lead." Ruby whispered back.

"Helloooooooooo!" Cardin grumbled again from behind, drawing all eyes at the table. "Do you have something to say to me?" With a mental sigh to herself and a look of determination, Ruby turned her attention back to him.

"Indeed I do... Weiss, how could you!"

"What?!" Weiss was aghast at the accusation. "What are you blaming me for?! You're the one that did it!"

"Weiiiiiiiss, you're supposed to play along!" Ruby muttered. Weiss was completely destroying the plan! It didn't help that Ruby nearly yelped as Cardin suddenly lifted her from the neck of her hood, lifting her off her seat as glaring angrily into her eyes.

"I know it was you you little squirt!"

"Hey, back off!" Yang growled, jumping to her feet. While they weren't among those trying to stand up for Velvet earlier, Ruby did have to admit it was a rather nice sight seeing her friends literally standing up for her, specifically Yang, Blake, Pyrrha, and Ren from the table.

Honestly, only one of them concerned Cardin at that moment, and it wasn't the kid whose throat he currently had his hands around. It was the furious-looking blonde girl with the shotgun gauntlets. He's already heard numerous stories of the blonde kid with awful puns who's beat down nearly every opponent she's come across so far during any of the physical exams. She was definitely among the more elite Hunters of the school when it came to physical prowess, easily knocking down several Hunters at once with her strength, leaving them in bruises, and she was the last one he wanted to cross out of the eight students at the table. It would be one thing to back down just because some blonde, a girl at that, threatened him, but it would've been worse for his pride and title if he did it in front of the rest of his crew.

"Stay out of this ya blond bimbo!" Cardin threatened, never taking his eyes off of the shorter girl who continued to glare back.

"Blond Bimbo?!" Yang's eyes burned red as she repeated the insult. If there were three things she hated being called it was Tomboy, Bimbo, and Blondie. This man was just one word away from spending the rest of his life in an iron lung. The other goons of Cardin's entourage could hear the girl's knuckles cracking under her own squeezing fist.

"Uhh Card'?" Russel spoke up, trying to get his attention. "Maybe you should let this one go."

"Fat chance," he grumbled back without losing focus, "this little snot's been getting in the way every time I've tried to have fun around here."

"Your idea of fun is picking on anyone weaker than you!" Ruby retorted.

"And anyone slightly different than you, like the Faunus." Blake added crossing her arms.

"Ghhhh..."This was getting out of hand. He could easily handle any one of them by himself, but the more people that started getting into it, the more trouble it was going to cause. On top of that, if it got too big, the staff were sure to come along at a moment's notice. With nothing more than a groan to himself, he dropped Ruby back to her seat before cracking his knuckles. "This ain't over, squirt." He warned as he and the rest of his team walked off.

All throughout watching his exit, Ruby glared. "I really hate that guy..."

"Hmph, just let it go Rubes." Yang mumbled as she calmed down again, eyes returning to their violet color. "Punks like that aren't worth it."

"Well It's not like we can just let jerks like him picking on anyone he wants." She poked at her food irritated. "We should be sticking up more to jerks like that."

"Ruby, it's not that simple." Blake tried to explain. "You can't just go picking a fight with a student, even if it's to stick up for someone else."

"Well why not?! If someone's picking on another person, you help them out! Plain and simple."

"It's far from simple, Ruby." Weiss stated, pitching into the conversation. "There's an order to things. One, you need to prove the person is bullying someone or doing some sort of improper conduct. Two, you need another witness to admit, confess, or agree with whatever statements you're saying. Only then can you actually get them in trouble, hopefully along the lines of detention if not suspension."

"But what sense does that make?! All you're doing is wasting time while people are bullying others and letting them get away with it." Ruby paused as she turned her attention to Jaune. "And you know it as well as I do, right?"

"Mmh..." Jaune mumbled looking away.

Ruby mumbled to herself as she stared back at her food. Why were there so many rules and laws to a simple process of getting someone to stop bullying? You see someone getting picked on, you should help them, end of story! There wasn't any guarantee the wrong would get punished even if Ruby did go along with everything they just said, no one else having anything different to say, all of them just in their own little agreement with the idea.

"If it means anything, you're not the only one appalled by it, Ruby." Pyrrha commented, giving her some sense of relief. "I can't stand people like him."

"You're not the only one." Blake agreed.

Yang nodded in turn, looking back to the poor Faunus he was harassing minutes ago. Luckily she seemed fine for the most part, just moaning to herself a little as she rubbed her sore ears, sitting at the table by herself as she waited for the rest of her teammates to eventually show up for lunch. "It must be hard being a Faunus, having to deal with so many judgmental people like that."

Only for a split second did Ruby and Blake look each other in the eye at that. There was no end to the countless tales Blake told Ruby about the protests she's been a part of, all the marches all the picket signs, everything you would need at a rally. Sometimes, rallies ended in success. They managed to earn respected rights for whatever company or business they protested at for their fellow Faunus, and, usually after a bit of negotiating and agreements, both sides were happier for it.

Then there were the more usual outcomes at these rallies. The usual outcomes consisted of one side benefiting from everything while the other side, namely the Faunus, got nothing. There would be some riot breaking out during a rally which resulted in the Faunus not only getting hurt, but blamed for the violence to begin with! Because of that, they were easy to disperse because then the other side had the law enforcement in their hands, and nothing said listen to our side like the team that had the gun-weilding cops among them.

And this was all before the White Fang ever got involved with what they did today!

Every rally before then was peaceful, considerate. Sometimes it wasn't a matter of prejudice, it was just a misunderstanding or two between two people. Those were the days Blake cherished the most, when the White Fang proved to be a symbol of peace and honesty. Now any time a White Fang member appeared, it was at the center of a major conflict or war. Fights would break out, people would run around panicked, and nobody but the Faunus benefitted from instilling war and mayhem before all others.

As of this day, the White Fang were the worst outcome for a bullied victim: They turned into the very bullies they rallied against. Hopefully, it would never be someone Jaune would turn into, the teen shaking his head with a sigh as he walked away with his finished tray of food. He was another victim among many, and he wouldn't be the last.

Looking back from the new table they sat at, Cardin promised himself that. Looking over to the one in the white hood, he was all but sure. She was going to pay for humiliating him like that, still wiping some of the tomato juices out of his hair as he grumbled. No one gets away with trying to embarrass him like that, and the next practice exam he had would make sure of that.

After all, it was all too convenient that he found himself next up against a certain Miss Fall in a couple days.

...

...

...

 ** _A/N: Annnnd I think a good stopping point right there ^^. Like I said folks, sorry for the lack of updates and short episode, but again, been awhile, and not bad for a four minute runtime. I still think it's fair given the time limit and everything. I also think i'm getting back to my writing (albeit slowly) after my lengthy hiatus, so hopefully we'll get more chapters soon ^^!_**

 ** _Anyway, leave a like, fav, and rev if you enjoyed and hope to see you soon!_**


	38. Vol 1 Episode 12: Jaundice Pt 2

**_A/N: 6.9k Pre-A/N. I'll be honest, originally was only like 4.7k cause it was only going to involve what was seen in the episode, but I decided since it's been awhile and you guys deserve some nice good ol' fanfiction, I'd go ahead to make it longer ^^ With that said, it does add some parts from the following episode, but since I plan on changing the next few eps here and there, I figured it would be good. We'll still get our forest trip, we'll get our resolvement bit, yada yada yada. You'll know the changes when you see em ^^_**

 ** _With that said, enjoy!_**

 ** _..._**

 ** _..._**

 ** _..._**

 ** _~This will be the day we waited for~_**

 _Cinder and salem are seen standing on a balcony on the side of the latter's home looking out in the distance to where Vale would be. As they look up to a Nevermore flying overhead, the camera pans up as well, showing an orange sky that slowly turns blue._

 ** _~This will be the day we open up the door~_**

 _Returning back down from its view of the sky, we see Ruby opening the door to Beacon's main hall, Wolfie peaking out behind her, Blake standing next to her, oblivious to the Grimm's presence._

 ** _~I don't wanna hear your absolution~_**

 _The Camera 'flies' through the hallways until it settles on Ozpin going through illegible notes on his scroll next to a photo of young miss Fall._

 ** _~Hope your ready for a revolution~_**

 _Outside his window, WYJR can be seen standing together. As the screen is overtaken by a storm of white petals, Weiss pushes Jaune a bit away._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of new solutions~_**

 _One of the petals remain before a black background and is revealed to be Ruby as she pulls out [insert weapon name] and starts twirling her Scythe around, leaving a burning crimson Halo above herself._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of blood evolution~_**

 _The red halo turns into Wolfie's red Iris as the camera zooms out revealing the pool of blood beneath the Grimm. before he dissolves into a shadow and to the side._

 ** _~In time your heart will open minds~_**

 _The shadow flows beneath Ruby cloak who is standing with her team, a conflicted expression on her face. Soon though it is replaced with a look of determination as the Camera pans once more._

 ** _~A Story will be told~_**

 _When the camera settles on Ruby's viewpoint we see Amber kneeling before Cinder, before the camera zooms back and her surroundings turn into the vault beneath Beacon._

 ** _~And Victory is in a Simple Soul~_**

 _We see a final shot of a young Ruby hugging her family, which reveals itself to be an old picture in Salem's Hand who is enjoying tea served by Neo._

"Yes! Yes, prior to the Faunus Rights Revolution, more popularly known as the Faunus War, humankind was quite, quite adamant about centralizing Faunus population to Menagerie." Oobleck explained as he went into many a great detail about the events.

The classroom was a magical place in any given environment. Within it you could find one of three different races in it; the people who struggled to stay away to falling asleep, the people who continued to follow along and be whisked away in wonder in what they were learning, and the people who were bored out of their mind and doodling in their notebooks or trying to find something to preoccupy their minds. Jaune himself actually fell into the first category of people, quietly snoring to himself as he slouched on his desk in one of the front rows.

At first Ruby was excited about her classes up to this point. School was a new and unique experience for the sheltered child. There were plenty of people for her to meet, new and surprising faces, the classes themselves seemed different enough yet similar to those studies she had when she was tutored by a personal tutor and then by Watts later in life, and there were surprisingly some fun classes too! Of the many, Professor Ports had to be one of her favorites, mostly because it made her feel like a genius above the rest since she knew so much about Grimm. On top of that, she got to fight a few here and there too! Hopefully none of them were her dear Gran's personal Grimm, otherwise everything was great!

THEN you had classes like this one. Professor Oobleck. Historian, teacher, architect, coffee addict, every single piece of boredom rolled into one. It's not like she didn't understand why learning about history was important, she just didn't find any of it interesting. Why bother reading up on what stupid people did during the stupid ages? That's like going to a Safety Seminar and asking why you don't lay in the middle of a road, it's just common sense! Besides, most of the stuff they taught were all about stupid racial issues, and she sure didn't have any racisms!

...Unless saying textbooks are boring is one, otherwise she was good.

On top of that, she knew a great deal about prejudice from growing up with Blake. Every several months, she would come back with stories about one of the rallies or protests and go into great detail about what she and her parents did and the people they were trying to help. A lot of them sounded like fun activities to Ruby when she was younger, seeing the rallies and protests as some form of "Family activity" until she was old enough to understand what they really were. Every single one of them started with the Faunus protesting for equality, and more than half of them ended in despair.

That's what made history so boring to Ruby and confusing at the same time. Why were people so stupid back then just to hold prejudice against someone based off how they look? So someone had rabbit ears, that's cute. Someone had a dog's tail, must've been comfortable to nap with. So that person can breath underwater and swim like the fish Faunus they were, how amazing! Why were people just so stupid?

To only add to the dilemma of boredom, only Nora was in the class at the same time Ruby was, the rest of her teammates having a different class schedule than her. There were times she could socialize with Nora during studies and do assignments together, but much like Ruby, Nora found it impossible to pay attention for longer than 30 seconds with how fast this teacher spoke. The only consolation she did have was that Yang and Ren were in her class too, so they provided some support when it came to studying.

At least during the lessons, they were on the upper rows of the classroom, so any time they seemed distracted or bored in front of the teacher, he wasn't as likely to call them out on it.

"While this might feel like ancient history to you," or complete boredom to Ruby's case, "it is imperative to remember that these are relatively recent events! Why the repercussions of the uprising can still be seen to this day!" He paused for a full second to take another sip. "Now! Have any among you been subjugated or discriminated because of your Faunus heritage?"

It was at that time Blake felt a little guilty as she watched Velvet slowly and nervously raise her hand. She hated what she had to do with herself, hiding her own Faunus heritage from the rest of the academy despite how many other Faunus were showing theirs off with pride. She wasn't ashamed of her heritage, far from it! She just didn't want to have to deal with the constant harassment she's seen other Faunus' suffer from bullying and subjugation.

Yet here was Velvet, announcing her own problems before the class, feeling a little embarrassed. She was constantly picked on, and knowing the more unsavory people in this classroom, aka Cardin, she was going to get harassed even more from it, and she still held up her hand honorably.

She definitely owed her an apology at some point.

"Dreadful," Oobleck commented shaking his head, "simply dreadful! Remember, students, this kind of ignorance breeds violence! I mean, I mean, I mean, just look at what happened to White Fang! Now, which one of you young scholars can tell me what many theorists believe to be the turning point in the third year of the war? ...Yes?" He questioned to the Schnee who raised her hand.

"The battle at Fort Castle!" Weiss answered.

"Precisely! And, who can tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagune's Forces?"

It's been awhile. It's been awhile since Cardin found a way to amuse himself during this dull class. The teacher talked his ear off, the assignments were boring, and there wasn't anyone to harass as long as the teacher kept teaching.

Except for one certain blonde Jaune snoozing in front of him. Taking a quick double take to make sure his coast was clear, he fiddled with a piece of paper into a paper football before flinging it straight at the back of Jaune's head.

"Hey!" Jaune yelped startled, trying to scratch away whatever irritated his head just now. Unfortunately for him, the teacher took that as a sign, just as Cardin had anticipated.

"Mr. Arc! Finally contributing to class! This is excellent! Excellent! What is the answer?" The teacher's expectancy gave Jaune little time to process what just happened. All he did know at that moment was that he owed his _thanks_ to Cardin for getting him into future trouble.

"Uhhh... The Answer..." He glanced around the room trying to think. Luckily he was at the edge of the row of seats, so he plenty of space to look around for some possible clue. "The advantage... of the Faunus... had over that guy's stuff..."

She couldn't just let him do this alone. Whether or not they were on different teams, Pyrrha wanted to help Jaune with everything, especially if Cardin was the root cause of his dilemma. Doing her best, she made silent gestures around her eyes to the young Arc, doing her best to word out the answers without giving away her hints to the other students, save for Blake, who didn't mind, right next to her. It was at her last gesture that Jaune finally came up with the answer!

"B-Binoculars!" Sadly no matter how proudly he answered, it wouldn't change the fact it was wrong. Jaune never would've realized this so soon if it wasn't for the laughter from dozens of his fellow classmates, Cardin getting the most kick out of it since he started this.

Sighing to himself, Oobleck cooled any temper he would've had with another sip of his warm coffee, all while Pyrrha moaned to herself at Jaune's failed guess. "Very funny, Mr. Arc." The teacher muttered returning to his desk. There was some fairness to this ordeal as Oobleck suddenly noticed Cardin cracking up over the situation, practically volunteering to answer to him. "Cardin," he spoke up, grabbing his attention, "perhaps you would care to share your thoughts on the subject?"

The bully was only slightly caught off guard, leaning in his chair without a care in the world. He didn't care much for classes or history so he just threw out the first thought that came to mind. "Well, I know it's easier to train an animal than a soldier."

Unbelievable. In just a few short seconds he broke the record for how quick someone can respond to show his disinterest in a classroom and insult hundreds of people at the exact same time. Pyrrha scoffed as she shook her head at him.

"You're not the most open-minded of individuals, are you, Cardin?" She replied, greatly insulting his pride.

"What? You got a problem?"

"No, I have the answer!"

Oh snap.

"It's night vision. Many Faunus are known to have nearly-perfect sight in the dark." Cardin could only grumble to himself as the warrior continued insulting his ineptitude without actually saying anything direct.

"General Lagune was inexperienced and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep." Blake added. "His massive army was outmatched, and the General was captured." She turned her attention to Cardin with a small grin. "Perhaps if he'd paid better attention in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure.

"Oooh!" Cardin growled as he squeezed his fist, slowly rising out of his chair.

"Mr. Windchester, please take your seat!" Oobleck instructed, preventing what could've been a fight breaking out. His focus wasn't distracted enough to ignore the small chuckling coming from Jaune ahead of him, quickly zipping in front of his desk immediately after. "You and Mr. Arc can both see me after class for additional readings."

"Ooh..." He knew he should've kept his mouth shut.

...

...

With the rallying bell, the students began to exit the classroom one after the other. If there were a few sounds in the world children loved to hear, it was the sound of a bell going off to tell them that classes were over. Nobody hesitated exiting the classroom with satisfaction, save for Jaune and Cardin who had to remain behind for whatever "readings" Oobleck had in store for them.

Even with this, Pyrrha couldn't bring herself to leave Jaune behind, Blake looking back at her as they left, noticing her pause.

"You can go on ahead, Blake. I'll wait for Jaune." The incognito Faunus smiled with a nod as she continued onward. Classes were over for the day for most students. Now, aside from whatever time they required to get their assignments done, they had the rest of the evening to do as they pleased.

Meanwhile, the teacher continued his lecture with the remaining two students.

"You two have been struggling in my class since day one! Now, I don't know if it's a lack of interest or your stubborn nature, but whatever it is," he paused for another sip, "it stops now!"

It was troubling when a student didn't seem the least bit interested in anything he taught. He found it to be one of the most important teachings of the entire world! You can teach your science mumbo-jumbo and your lessons on how to deal with Grimm, but history is what leads people to the future, preventing them from making mistakes of the past!

"You've worked hard to gain entrance into this school, and we only accept the best of the best! So, I expect you to act like it! History is important gentlemen. If you can't learn from it... you're destined to repeat it. Pages 51 to 91! I want an essay on my desk by next class. Now, run along." He waved off, allowing the tortured souls to finally leave.

They weren't fast enough to out-walk him, the teacher passing by them in seconds with the power of caffeine coursing through this his veins. It's a rather unfortunate outcome too since mere seconds after passing the two students, he failed to watch how Cardin casually shoved Jaune to the floor before Pyrrha, the bully outrage that a dweeb such as him got him into trouble and extra homework. And like every bully in the world, he didn't stop to wait around and watch Pyrrha get him up.

"Ugh..." Jaune groaned, rubbing his thigh trying to ease his soreness.

"You know, I really will break his arms." Pyrrha said, half jokingly and half serious. All she needed was for his approval. The sigh he returned only worried her more.

Jaune was a good friend, and a good person. Different teams or not, he was still a person being bullied by an incredible jerk. Cardin picked on Jaune at every opportunity, for no reason other than being stronger than Jaune. He prided himself on everything he did, and only grew more prideful with each person who suffered within his reach. He practically saw himself as the king of this castle, the king of Beacon if anything.

They were exactly the kind of people Pyrrha and others hated. Why did they pick on people anyway? That wasn't going to get him any fans, it was just going to make people hate him more. Given Cardin's character, there was little doubt it had anything to do with some form of tragic backstory, not that it would matter at this point.

It was entirely pointless, just like all bullies were. They did nothing more than pick on people, and unless their goal was to get their lunch money or boss them around, there was little reward on their end. They simply spread suffering for the sake of spreading suffering, and didn't care who knew it.

It was only then that Pyrrha thought up an idea, smiling as it came to her. "I have an idea. Here, come with me!" That was less of a request and more of an order on her part as she grabbed Jaune's wrist and ran down the hallways with him.

"Ack-!"

...

...

As they entered one of the many spacious rooftops, the sky came into view. The night sky was a glorious thing to behold at times, seeing it so peaceful and beautiful with it's many bright lights. People could often come out to these wonders at night and just let out all of their tension at once as they relaxed.

Not to mention the view of the surroundings themselves. Night lights were glaring on the dark pavements as small chirps of crickets could be heard all over the place. There was a strange, unique, sound in the air as all these sounds mixed with the majestic wind, blowing past gently against the students. It was the perfect temperature for any outdoor activity, whether day or night. And it was the perfect time of the day to just let all those problems come out.

Which is what worried Jaune as they neared the edge of the roof.

"Pyrrha, I know I'm going through a hard time right now, but I'm not..." He gulped a little as he looked over the ledge. "I'm not THAT depressed. I mean I can always be a farmer or something..."

"Wha- No!" She quickly yelped, pushing him away from the edge before he got anymore wrong ideas. "That's not why I brought you up here!" That was one of things Pyrrha admired about Jaune, his innocence. Whether he was joking or being serious at the time of the comment, she still found it funny and a little cute.

"Look, Jaune, I know you're having a difficult time in class, and you're not one of the strongest of fighters, so..." With her head down, Jaune couldn't see the small semi-transparent blush briefly flashing on her face. "I want to help you!"

"W-What?" He was completely baffled by the words. Unlike Pyrrha, he found it rather surprising and confusing that someone from a different team would want to help him. Actually now that he thought about it, it was surprising to him that anyone would want to help him out with his troubles. Yang was helpful with the occasional pep talk, and Weiss did somewhat lend him her notes, but she was against trying to teach him things directly in the hopes he would eventually start paying attention on his own.

So to find anyone else willing to directly say they would help him was rather shocking!

"We can train up here after class where no one can bother us!" Pyrrha explained.

"You... think I need help..." She was only aware of how that made it sound after Jaune said it.

"N-No, that's not what I meant."

"But you just said it."

"Look, Jaune, everyone needs a little push from time to time. There's no reason to feel ashamed about it. It doesn't make you the least bit different than the rest of us." She said, trying to comfort him. There were plenty of good things about Jaune, even if he didn't see it himself.

"What makes you want to help me anyway?" He muttered, looking over the edge again. "We're not even on the same team Pyrrha, so why do you care?" Once again, with his back turned, he failed to notice the brief redness that flashed over Pyrrha's face.

"W-Well that-! I mean... B-Because we're friends, of course!" She answered. It's not like she was lying at least.

Just because they didn't share the same dorm or share the same team didn't mean they didn't hang out from time to time. There was dozens of moments when the team interacted with one another, both sides wanting to hang out for various reasons. Be it studying, sparring, socializing, or just having breakfast, lunch, and dinner together, they always hung out because they were all friends.

"But why even bother with me?" Jaune asked again. "What makes you think I can even do anything?"

"What do you mean?" She questioned his words. "You made it to Beacon Jaune, that speaks volumes of what you can do!"

Like the last several times, all he could reply with was a small sigh as he turned away. "You're wrong... I... I don't belong here..."

"That's a terrible thing to say, Jaune. Of course you do!"

"No, I don't!" He snapped back, surprising her. He waited for a short moment as he tried to calm down again, the look on her face telling him how badly he reacted. "I wasn't really accepted into Beacon."

"Wh-What do you mean?" For the first time since the conversation started she found herself mixed with confusion worry.

"I mean, I didn't go to any combat school, I didn't pass any tests! I didn't earn my spot at this academy!" He revealed. Each word surprised Pyrrha more than the last, but no more than the entirety of the reveal itself. "I lied. I just got my hands on some fake transcripts and I lied."

"What? But why?" This couldn't be right. Jaune? The seemingly all around normal kid actually went behind everyone's back and did something as illegal and faked his transcripts? She could expect something like that from Cardin of all people, never Jaune.

"'Cause, this is what I always wanted to be! My father, my grandfather, and his father before him were all warriors! They were all heroes! I wanted to be one too... I was just never good enough."

She knew it. She knew there was a good reason behind all this. Jaune was a selfless, caring person, so it all added up with what he did. It didn't necessarily mean he could be forgiven for doing something so illegal, but coming from Jaune it was sweet to see him do it for a reason that was noble, like honoring his ancestors and family line.

With a small smile, she gently laid her hand on his shoulder "But Jaune, you can be a great warrior, you can be like your whole family!" She tried to encourage. "I can help you, we can train every day up here, we-"

"I don't want help!" He yelled. "I don't want to be the damsel in distress! I want to be the hero!"

"But Jaune-"

"I don't want to be the loveable idiot, the goof off who gets thrown through the air by a Deathstalker, the idiot who gets stuck in a tree while his friends fight for their lives! Don't you get it!? If I can't do this on my own... then what good am I?"

"But-"

"But nothing! For crying out loud, we're not even from the same dorm, go bother your own team!"

"..." She could only look away slightly as she frowned, this time being the one unaware of the facial expression growing on Jaune's regretful face. "I... I see...Well then, if that's what you think is best, I apologize for troubling you. I hope you have a good night."

By the time Jaune could regain any sense of his body, it was already too late to reach out for her. For the next few moments he could only stare off in the direction Pyrrha left, realizing everything he just said, and finally grumbling to himself as she scratched his head.

Great. Just great. Not only did he piss off an incredibly friendly person, not only did he reject help from someone offering their assistance to his problems, not only did he make himself look like the biggest jerk of the century, he told off someone in the absolute worst way imaginable with all those details combined! He'd be lucky if she didn't tell the rest of her team about this and watch as the rumors spread around the entire school within a few short hours! At this point, he would've been shocked if no one was there to beat him up the next day.

And why wouldn't they? He was a jerk! Even he could see that, repeating every flippant thing he just said inside his head on a continuous loop. It was just so frustrating! He wanted to be a great warrior, he wanted to be like his family and make everyone proud! So here he was, not just doing the complete opposite, but making himself out to be the dumbest jerk whoever lived.

Saying sorry wasn't going to cut it at this point. On the very unlikely chance she forgave him, it wouldn't take back anything he just said. Aside from pushing away any help she was trying to offer, he just insisted that she was being a nuisance and bothering him for the last several minutes. Way to go, at this rate, he saw himself going to talk a doctor out of preforming life-saving heart surgery for a sick child.

And just when he thought this was the worst point of his life, this happened.

"Oh Jaune..." Every fiber of his being prayed he was imagining thing when he heard it. It wouldn't be. It couldn't be.

"Cardin!?" Jaune gasped. Sure enough, there he was,, climbing up from the ledge of building and walking casually over. "W-What are you doing here?"

"I couldn't help but overhear you two from my dorm room." He replied, grinning. A grinning bully was every person's worst nightmare, worse than an angry one. "So, you snuck into Beacon, huh? I got to say Jaune, I never expected you to be such a rebel."

"Please! Cardin, please don't tell anyone!" Jaune begged as he panicked.

"Jaune! Come on! I would never rat out a friend like that!" He replied walking over. That was mong the last of responses he expect from Cardin when it involved Jaune himself.

"A-A friend?" He repeated questionably. He nearly yelped as he found Cardin putting him in a one-armed headlock, tightly squeezing him around the head.

"Of course! We're friends now, Jauney boy. And the way I see it, as long as you're there for me when I need you, we'll be friends for a long time." Blackmail. The one simple word that sent shivers down anyone's spine was blackmail. Cardin knew his secret, and Jaune was only too horrified to realize he now had absolute control over him. "That being said... I really don't have time to do all those extra readings Dr. Oobleck gave us today. I think you'll do just fine pulling both of ours at once, eh Jauney boy?" His request was more along the lines of an order as he released Jaune from his headlock, dropping him to the ground.

"Mmh..." It wasn't like he could say no at this point, grumbling silently to himself in his mind. "Fine, I'll do your homework for you."

"Oh, no, no, no, Jauney." He continued, waving his hands and head. "It doesn't just end there. There's gonna be a lot of interesting things I need you to do."

"Like what?"

"Oh, I'm so glad you asked." Jaune cursed to himself for his big mouth. "While you're at it, I need you to look into something for me, involving a certain girl from that other team you hang out with."

"Look, whatever you have against Pyrrha-"

"Pyrrha? Pffft, I could care less about her, for now anyway." Jaune was rather surprised by the statement, his hope and relief slowly dwindling away with what he had to say next. "I need you to do something about a certain Ruby Fall."

...

...

"Mmh... come on..." Ruby mumbled to herself.

She was proud of herself. She was proud of the family she came from. They entrusted her with all their hope to take upon this mission and see to it that she discover and possibly kill the evil maiden. She never felt so happy to feel needed by the people she's trained with, everybody she grew up alongside, to finally be needed by them instead of the other way around.

It was wonderful! She could finally work towards becoming the true hero she was always meant to be, the people they needed her to be right now. Once she proved herself to the rest of them, she'd be greeted with open arms and praise from her allies, all congratulating her on finishing the job she set out to do months ago with her mother the first time.

She just wished it wasn't so boring! At this point, she was forced to contend with the library. After her many weeks of scavenging and exploring the school herself and not finding any hint towards the maiden's whereabouts, the only alternative she came to was checking up the library itself. While it might've been a long shot, she needed to find something about this place, Beacon Academy, that could point her into the right direction, or give her some clue to where the maiden could be.

At first she thought it would be a simple task to accomplish, thanks to the fact there were at least twelve different books she found about the creation and construction of this place. They were all very large too so the chances of her finding anything was fantastic! With this done, she could discover any secrets to the school, find the maiden's location, and finish her task and be home within a week's time, a month at most!

It wasn't until she opened the first book before her that she came to regret her optimism. There she was, staring down a hardcover five-hundred page book about the origins and history of this school, with the world's smallest of writing! There might've been thousands of words on every single page given how minimal the writing was. Mixed that together with the near five-hundred pages of this book, being the first out of a dozen she had to contend with, and this was turning into a complete nightmare!

Don't even get her started on her homework either. Of course there was tons of homework to do, why wouldn't there be? She had maybe five assignments given to her each day, about fourteen in total every week. The assignments weren't hard either, thanks to her friends giving her hand here and there, and not everything was boring like the lectures and Grimm-based studies Port gave her. She just wished she could keep better track of everything within the pages and everything related to her mission here. Half the time she read one book she realized she was reading the wrong one!

AND SHE WAS ONLY ON THE THIRD PAGE OF THIS STUPID BOOK FOR GOD SAKE-!

"Hey Ruby."

"Ack-!" Ruby nearly jumped as Jaune greeted her. He was just as startled by her response, figuring someone like Ruby wasn't scared of anything so easily. "Oh, phew, Jaune, hiya." She breathed a sigh of relief. For a grand millisecond, she thought everything about her true purpose at this school was being discovered. That's how deeply in thought she was by the time Jaune greeted her. "What's up?" Her answer came in the form of a small frown on his face, looking away from her. "Something wrong?"

"Eh... sorta..." He mumbled just loud enough for her to hear. It was as he sat down that she noticed the two cups he was currently holding, setting them down before him. She had a feeling one of them were for her, she just waited patiently with the proper manners taught to her by her grandmother. Not to mention the questionable look on his face which concerned her. "It's... about Pyrrha."

"Pyrrha?" She blinked curiously. "What happened? Is she alright?"

"Well yeah, it's nothing bad like that or anything, it's just..." He paused briefly with a sigh. "I might've screwed things up here."

"What? You didn't burp or fart or something in front of her face, did you?"

"What? No, nothing like that!" He exclaimed, earning a small chuckle from the hooded girl.

"Heh, I was just kidding, geeze." Despite her attempts at brightening the situation, she started to frown in turn as Jaune's expression stayed the same. "Jaune... is everything okay?"

"No, I... I did something stupid..." He mumbled.

Thus he began going into his long story of almost everything within the last several hours. It was hard to tell if Ruby was paying attention to any part of his story directly as she continued to maintain the same facial expression for the past ten minutes. She just sat there and listened to everything he said, nodding the occasional minute when he got to an important piece of it. He couldn't tell if she was taking this extremely well, was bottling up her anger for his lashing out at another of her teammates, or just didn't care because her posture never shifted once.

This was starting to become worse than if she did say anything. At least if she did say something to him, he would have a grasp on what her thoughts were. Heck, it would prepare him for any and all future reactions he got from anyone once rumors of this, if there were any, spread around the school about what he did.

The only thing he didn't tell her about was the reason for the argument, everything related to his false transcripts. There was no way he could reveal the secret behind the argument no matter how badly he wanted it fixed.

Finally, taking a minute to process everything in, she finally left with him some words of encouragement.

"Wow... You're an idiot."

Ok well maybe despair but close enough.

"Ugh, tell me about it." Jaune groaned.

"No I mean really, you're being stupid right now." She repeated, closing her book as she leaned on her arm. His ears perked up a bit while he turned his head a little. "You went and snapped at someone trying to help you and now you regret it. That's fine. But if you really are sorry about it, you should just tell her the truth then, don't keep it bottled up so much." To his surprise, a small personal frown grew on her own face as she looked away. "You'd be surprise how much worse you can hurt someone by keeping things bottled in."

"I'm not keeping things bottled up, I just... I just don't know what to say..."

It's not like she didn't know where he was coming from. If she said anything like that or did what he did to someone she cared about, she'd be in a mess about making things right too. Add the fact that this involved someone from both her's and Weiss's team, the latter who Ruby was still trying to get on legit friendly terms instead of rivalry-friendly terms, and she wouldn't know what to do aside from the truth. Anything he said or did would reflect on both teams, just like how whatever Pyrrha did after today would reflect her own team.

"Well... I really can't say much other than just apologize to her." Ruby replied. "Let her know you're sorry and you didn't mean it. That's what good people do, Jaune."

"But I'm not a good person Ruby, I'm... I'm just a screw up." He sighed.

"...Nope."

"Huh?" He was caught off guard by her response.

"Nope. You're not a screw up, Jaune. You're a hunter." She stated with a smile. "You don't get to be a screw up anymore, you have a team now."

"Hmph, says you. You have a team, Ruby, I'm just the screw up on mine."

"So?" She shrugged. "What does being the leader have to do with it? It doesn't matter how skilled I am with stuff or what strengths I do have. If I have to carry the entire team on my shoulders, then as a leader I'm doing something wrong. And even if I wasn't, that still wouldn't change things. A single person can change the whole team for better or worse Jaune. That's why we can't afford to be screw ups anymore. WE can only be who our friends need us to be."

...Wow...

He never thought she would get to a valid point but wow. The hyperactive girl only second to Nora actually brought up a decent, well-made point. It's not like he didn't think she was incapable of doing anything like that, seeing how she was the leader of a great team of Hunters, known by some to be a rather mismatched bunch. He just didn't think it would be something as deep as that given her past tales she told him about.

The lies she displayed, at least.

Still, as helpful as that was he could only frown. No amount of comfort would prepare him for what he had to do next. "Yeah, well... I don't know..." He mumbled again.

"Just sleep on it tonight and apologize by morning. Consider it a Captain-to-a-Captain-to-a-Teammate's order." She said with a small salute. Jaune was aware of her eyeballing the drinkings in his hand, becoming harder and harder for what he had to do soon. As for Ruby herself, she slowly rubbed her fingers with anticipation, finding it harder and harder to resist asking for the great-smelling drinks. Maybe it would still count as polite if she hinted to them? "So... about those drinks there..."

"Huh? Oh, yeah, that..." He paused looking into the mug in his right hand, seeing his reflection staring back at him. He always wanted to be a hunter, and went through great lengths to get here. There was no way he could screw that up now. "Yeah..." There was no going back now. He handed her the mug in his right. "Here you go, hope you like it." With a simple swipe, his fate was sealed.

Ruby happily drank the contents of the sweet-smelling drink. It had a strange aroma of cocoa to it mixed with honey, both of which were a delicious combination! As she continued to drink it though, she couldn't help but make a face as a small irritation began tickling the back of her throat. "Hack-ough!" She coughed, rubbing her throat a little. "It tastes kinda funny..."

"Sorry, it's a... different recipe I was trying." He apologized, slowly rising his chair shamefully as he gulped down the contents of the other drink. "Anyway, I better be on my way. Thanks for the pep talk, Ruby." She gave him a simple smile as she waved back, coughing again a few seconds after.

"Yeah, I'll be taking off shortly too. Nora and I are gonna make some," Ruby paused briefly as she let out another strange cough, "make some pancakes tonight. Have a goodnight!" She smiled with another wave of her hand as he left, returning to her reading once more.

That was it. He sealed both their fates. Everything that happened from here on out was going to be on him, and he had no one to blame but himself for it. He could've said no at any point, could've refused to give her the drink, but he couldn't. He couldn't do anything by himself anymore.

"I'm such a coward..."

"And a darn good friend, Jauney." Cardin spoke up, catching him by surprise again as he saw him leaning against the outer entrance of the library.

"C-Cardin? Wh-What are you-"

"Just making sure you followed through, Jauney boy." Cardin interrupted with a smug grin, peeking over into the room. His grin only widened as he saw Ruby cough again to herself while reading, seeing his plans falling through to effect. "I gotta hand it to ya Jaune, you really do pull through when you're needed. I didn't think you had it in you."

"Yeah well... You promise it's not going to hurt her or anything, right?" Jaune asked worriedly. He didn't care how blackmailed he was, the last he wanted to find out was that a student died because of him!

Actually any student would've had the same thought...

"Of course Jauney, of course!" He replied, never removing his smug grin as he patted Jaune's shoulder. "All it's going to do is make tomorrow's exam very...interesting..."

...

...

...

 _ **A/N: And what'cha think ^^? I'll be honest, I added the last 1/3rd of it on a whim to give you guys some more stuff, so sorry if any wording came out weird. Halfway through it I decided to go with my previous idea for the next episode additions, so that might've made things slightly confusing.**_

 _ **Either way, hope you still enjoyed it! Leave a like, fav, and review, and hope to see you soon ^^!**_


	39. Vol 1 Episode 13: Forever Fall

_**A/N: For the first time in awhile, at a whopping 9.1k PRE-A/N :D! Hooftah, that was a lot of work, which is why you can see this is rather late.**_

 _ **Anyway, you'd think i'd start running out of these A/N's to talk about after nearly 40 chapters in, but wouldn't you know it? I'm still finding stuff to talk about and point out XP**_

 _ **Some of you may have noticed a few time discrepancies within the last several chapters- not so much with getting a time wrong, but with the placements of them. For example, last chapter I was supposed to have a scene or two of everyone from team RBPN and WYJR in the class- however, when I saw the episode, I could only see Jaune, Weiss, Pyrrha, and Blake along with whoever else was in it, and at first, thought they were the only ones in it since I recall Ruby once saying they had a few classes together, not all of them. So i wrote it as such with only them.**_

 _ **THEN after the class freaking Nora and Ren are seen coming out of it, proving they WERE in there XD! I'm sorry for the mixups like that but i write the fanfics as I watch the episodes (yeah I've seen them before but I write them to make sure I stick to script in most cases). Even today's chapter towards the end, spoiler, I wrote how Jaune was being Cardin's lacky for what I assumed to be the last several days- turns out it's been over a week when Cardin says it 9/10ths INTO THE SHOW XD!**_

 _ **Seriously the show has so much time passing within seasons- you probably wouldn't know by the latest season of Season 5 that SEVERAL MONTHS HAVE PASSED FROM EP 1 TO PRESENT If they didn't announce it here and there XD!**_

 _ **huff, so anyway yeah, you might find some issues with that here and there. Some of it I try to patch up but apologize if I miss anything. On said note, I also hope my writing is still good guys. lately I've been wondering if it's been off as of late, though I can't tell if it is since it's the writing I've always done, and the month hiatus I was gone for as I get back into the flow of things.**_

 _ **Anyway, sorry for the small rant there, hope this extra long episode makes up for it ^^! Enjoy!**_

 _ **...**_

 _ **...**_

 _ **...**_

 ** _~This will be the day we waited for~_**

 _Cinder and salem are seen standing on a balcony on the side of the latter's home looking out in the distance to where Vale would be. As they look up to a Nevermore flying overhead, the camera pans up as well, showing an orange sky that slowly turns blue._

 ** _~This will be the day we open up the door~_**

 _Returning back down from its view of the sky, we see Ruby opening the door to Beacon's main hall, Wolfie peaking out behind her, Blake standing next to her, oblivious to the Grimm's presence._

 ** _~I don't wanna hear your absolution~_**

 _The Camera 'flies' through the hallways until it settles on Ozpin going through illegible notes on his scroll next to a photo of young miss Fall._

 ** _~Hope your ready for a revolution~_**

 _Outside his window, WYJR can be seen standing together. As the screen is overtaken by a storm of white petals, Weiss pushes Jaune a bit away._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of new solutions~_**

 _One of the petals remain before a black background and is revealed to be Ruby as she pulls out [insert weapon name] and starts twirling her Scythe around, leaving a burning crimson Halo above herself._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of blood evolution~_**

 _The red halo turns into Wolfie's red Iris as the camera zooms out revealing the pool of blood beneath the Grimm. before he dissolves into a shadow and to the side._

 ** _~In time your heart will open minds~_**

 _The shadow flows beneath Ruby cloak who is standing with her team, a conflicted expression on her face. Soon though it is replaced with a look of determination as the Camera pans once more._

 ** _~A Story will be told~_**

 _When the camera settles on Ruby's viewpoint we see Amber kneeling before Cinder, before the camera zooms back and her surroundings turn into the vault beneath Beacon._

 ** _~And Victory is in a Simple Soul~_**

 _We see a final shot of a young Ruby hugging her family, which reveals itself to be an old picture in Salem's Hand who is enjoying tea served by Neo._

"Achoo!" Jaune sneezed into his arm, covering his runny nose as it attracted some views of his nearby friends.

"Eesh, you okay?" Nora wondered, checking in case it was contagious.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied in a slightly muffled tone, "just a bit of a runny nose this morning."

"I told you to get some rest this morning, I don't want you spreading it around." Weiss reminded with a bit of a grumble.

"I'm sure he can handle anything he wants to on his own." Pyrrha commented, having absolutely no tone or care to even look at him as she spoke.

Out of the numerous comments, hers probably struck the worst despite having little to no emotion to it. Given what happened yesterday, with Jaune's rather abrupt and harsh comment about wanting her to stop bothering him with his struggles, it was little surprise to him that she was still angry over it. Compared to most other people who would've possibly lashed out in return to his comment, she simply accepted it and left him to his own matters, leaving just moments before Cardin made his presence known from the dorm they were atop of.

That's when Jaune's day went from worse to bottomless. Before the argument, Jaune had confessed to Pyrrha about how he illegally gained entry into this prestigious academy of Beacon, the place where only the best of the best were accepted. Regardless of how he gained entry, Pyrrha tried to encourage him and offered to help him with his problems, most notably his bullying with Cardin and his lack of skills when it came to the many different fields of study the students were being taught, only to be brushed away by Jaune's frustrations getting the better of him, all the while the two were completely unaware of Cardin being present below them.

Immediately following Pyrrha's absence Cardin made his presence known, and his discovery about Jaune's illegal entry. Like any _good_ person like Cardin, he made an offer that Jaune was to afraid of refusing: be his guinea pig and servant, taking care of his various tasks like doing his homework and such, or have Cardin tell Glynda, aka Ms. Goodwitch, about it and result in him getting expelled. That was his one and only ultimatum.

And being his servant was the best option compared to what he had Jaune do next.

Following the little ordeal, he was tasked with doing something to another member of the team Pyrrha was on, the leader herself, Ruby Fall. All he simply had to do was offer her a drink that Cardin slipped something into and be on his way, making sure to have another drink himself so as to not arouse suspicion. And to ensure he followed through, not knowing it until he left the hooded girl in the library, Cardin spied on the two until the ordeal was over.

That was when Jaune realized he truly was nothing more than a coward, his heart aching with every beat along with a raincloud of guilt pouring over his head since the other day. Ruby was a rather whacky student, to say the least. Everything seemed so new to her, she had a rather bizarre backstory with being along in the woods for the last five years, and seemed as innocent as your typical child.

But the one thing she was that hurt Jaune the most was nice. She was a nice and sincere girl who did her best around the school, in front of her friends at least. She always wanted to do what was right, she always stuck out for people when they needed it, and she wasn't afraid of making a scene and standing up to someone like Cardin when he was picking on other students, especially Faunus like Velvet. There was no reason to poison her, nothing to justify his reason for doing this, there wasn't any karma Ruby had hanging over her that made her earn this. She was just an ordinary student of Beacon academy, training every day to be a hero like she's always wanted to be, and the only person who was a constant nuisance to Cardin himself.

So it was no surprise Cardin picked her out out of the many students he could've gotten back at. Granted, it wasn't like everyone else was safe from his wrath, he still owed a good deal of payback to others like Pyrrha and Blake who humiliated him in class the other day. Out of the several though, Ruby was the only one to have the gall to throw a tomato at his face when he was pulling on Velvet's ears. That humiliation added to how he was forced to back down when the rest of her friends started coming to her defense was something his pride would never let down.

Which is what worried and troubled Jaune the most. Not only did he have to deal with being blackmailed by Cardin for possibly the rest of his life, he had absolutely no idea what was laced inside the drinks he shared with Ruby. It could've been poison, it could've been some deadly strain of virus, a whole number of things. Only to make matters worse, he had yet to see Ruby all day since the Library yesterday. Granted a great deal of that had to do with how the room was verily dark, since the spotlights were positioned over the center stage for another sparring exam, but that did little to ease his worries.

It was only now that he realized another reason why Cardin wanted to sabotage Ruby today of all days, the sight of Glynda Goodwitch walking on stage with her scroll in hand.

"Today's exam will be another sparring match between several students." She announced, typing into her scroll as the two screens above the stage came to life. There was a large enough space for a student's image and the bar representing their remaining aura. "The first set of matches will begin immediately. First up, Cardin Winchester." Within the large spotlight of the small arena, Cardin walked into view, the casual smug grin on his face as he prepared for his opponent. Surprisingly, there was a large array of applause and cheer for him. It was hard to say how many of them were from people unaware of who he truly was, simply didn't care and were just being respectful, or those who were bullied and feared him who did it in the hopes of them not getting picked on for it after.

Needless to say, there was no applause emanating from the small group that consisted of Team WYJR and Team RBPN clustered together. All with the exception of one particular student.

"Ruby Fall." Glynda spoke again, the crowd cheering casually as they did Cardin, this time with the addition of several members from both of the two teams. Even Weiss was sincere enough to give a small clap of encouragement as they waited for Ruby to appear.

And waited.

And waited...

And waited...

And wai-

"Ruby Fall," Glynda announced again as the crowd began to silence, "please report to the stage for your exam."

With what light the students were gifted with thanks to the spotlight, the teams looked amongst themselves as they noticed the absence of a white-hooded girl. Their faces and looks of worry were only pitiful compared to the panic and worry that overwhelmed Jaune's mind.

"Hey, where is she?" Yang asked over to Blake.

"Mmh, she said she needed a few minutes this morning, she said she had a minor headache." The Faunus stated, growing worried as the absence of their leader, and her closest friend, continued.

"She was kind of out of breath this morning too when she woke up." Pyyrha added.

"Was she sick?" Weiss asked, earning a shrug from the warrior.

"She did seem a bit out of it, but she practically ordered us to go on ahead and she'd be right behind us in a few minutes."

This just filled Jaune's overflowing mind with more and more worry, as well as confusion. None of this made any sense! Cardin said whatever he put in the drink wasn't anything close to poison, but even then, that shouldn't-

Oh yeah, how could he possibly forget? Cardin, future leader of the Bully's Association, told him that. Jaune trusted the words of a bully whose done nothing but pick on him and every other weaker student within this school. He had a much better chance at getting a pathological liar to tell him the truth before someone like Cardin Winchester would!

"I'm here..." A groggy voice suddenly called, catching the attention of the audience again as all views focused on stage.

"Hey, there she... is..." The optimism in Yang's voice slowly dwindled as the hooded girl entered the stage from the left, opposite of Cardin.

Nothing about her resembled the young Ruby they all came to know and trust. Compared to the usual Ruby, this one was along the lines of a ragged and sickly-looking fellow given her posture, going by that since her face was still covered from the nose down. Her entire cape was all rugged, she was wobbling as she walked onto the stage, and by the time she pulled out her weapon she immediately panted with exhaustion, leaning on the scythe as she stood it up.

"Something is definitely wrong with her." Ren announced as he examined her stance.

"What the heck happened to her? She seemed perfectly fine when she went to bed last night!" Nora said, feeling sorry for both her Captain and her number one person-who-can-make-an-adorable-wolf-Grimm friend.

'Mmh..." Jaune couldn't prevent the small moan and look of worry from growing on his face, one that unfortunately went noticed by the fellow girl who already had anger towards him.

"Jaune?" Pyrrha spoke as she began to grow slightly suspicious.

"Ruby Fall." Glynda spoke again, eyeing the girl. No matter what she thought of the student, she knew Ruby, under normal circumstances, shouldn't have been anywhere like this. She was usually chipper, hyperactive, easygoing. The Ruby right before her looked like she just ran a marathon twice before coming here. Maybe it was just the nerves? This was going to be her first non-written exam since coming here, and a display of her skills at that. "Are both students prepared to fight?"

"Heh, you bet." Cardin grinned with a nod, easing his mace on his shoulder. This was going to be all too good for the head bully. This was going to turn out even better than he thought, he just knew it!

"I'm... I'm ready..." Ruby huffed.

"If... If you're sure." Glynda said as she backed into the shadows from the stage. "The match will end when one person either forfeits or their aura drops to the red zone. You may begin when ready!

And just like that, Ruby took off! ...At a snail's pace. She couldn't figure out what was wrong with herself. Her whole body felt ready to fall asleep at any given notice, her weapon weighed nearly a ton, and her vision for crying out loud! Everywhere she looked, everything seemed to be twisting and turning, She could only wobble side to side as she slowly walked forward, a slight bit of drool dripping from the corner of her mouth, as she dragged the scythe slowly behind her. And the only thing she wanted to know right now was why were there three Cardins at once?

"Ok seriously, something is wrong with her." Yang mumbled, feeling a little tense as she watched this. Ruby was definitely sick and feeling weak. Cardin was somebody that would love to take advantage of any situation like this. It was a match made in Heaven from a god with a cruel sense of humor.

'Hmph, you feeling okay there?" Cardin chuckled with a teasing grin. It took Ruby another several seconds until she was finally up close to Cardin himself, forcing her head up to look at him and his smug reaction at her face. "You're looking a little pale there, bud." Just like he said, Ruby's face was horrible. Her eyes were practically glazed over, she had beads of sweat dripping from her forehead, and her cheeks were flushed red. Nothing about her seemed to be lively, if anything she looked more dead than not. "Tell you what, since I'm such the noble sort of guy, I'll let you have the first shot, ok?"

"You...You asked for it..." She huffed as she gripped her scythe with both hands. Doing something as simple as that was taking all her strength, her arms wobbling in place as she struggled to lift it lazily over head. A snail's pace still would've been more than enough time to dodge, because by the time Ruby managed to take so much as a single swipe in front of her, Cardin sidestepped to her left with ease, watching the girl herself practically fall forward as she stumbled a little ahead.

The sight of such a sloppy display started earning a few chuckles and laughs from the audience, something her friends started to worry over. If it wasn't going to get her into any sort of trouble, Yang would've loved nothing more than to knock the lights out of these jerkish students. Laughing at someone losing a fight was insulting enough, doing it to someone who was obviously sick and losing was flat out horrible.

"Wow, really great move there." Cardin complimented sarcastically. "My turn."

 _ ***WHAM***_

"Ngh!" It was almost hard to watch the scene as Ruby grobbled in pain. With one solid swing as if he was holding a baseball bat, Cardin smashed the side of Ruby's face, sending the sickly girl stumbling a good several feet away as more beads of sweat leapt from her face.

"Ruby!" Blake called out, nearly taking a run for it until Weiss grabbed her shoulder.

"You can't interfere with a match or else Glynda will mark it against the entire team!" She warned. Blake muttered to herself with disgust. She wanted to help Ruby more than anything, marks be damned. But she didn't want to risk the chance of ruining the scores or grades of the rest of her teammates if they didn't want to ruin their grades.

Which was the sad yet ironic dilemma crossing all of their minds. Looking at one another, all three of Ruby's teammates wanted to help but stayed for the exact same reason. They wanted to help but they didn't want to risk ruining the score of their fellow teammates. Even if they announced that they should help it, if someone didn't want to, they might simply agree with it out of pressure, practically forcing them to cooperate even if they didn't want to.

Which was ironic since they all did.

At the same time, Ruby sluggishly pulled herself to her feet, arms still drooped over as she panted. He knocked her away from both him and her weapon, and any attempts to grab it at this point would've ended in him outrunning her. So, sticking with one of the lessons Hazel always taught about never backing down, she held up her fists weakly, ready to fight Cardin hand to hand until she had enough time to grab her weapon.

"Pffft, are you serious?!" Cardin burst out with laughter, growing louder as he saw Ruby wobble forward with each step. "You gotta be kidding me, I mean really gotta be kidding me." Ruby didn't care how much he laughed or the students around the arena did, she just refused to back down. With all of her might, and a deep breath, she pulled back her fist and struck as harsh as she could toward's Cardin's face.

Which he easily sidestepped again and ended with kneeing her right in the center of her stomach.

"Urgh-!" Ruby grobbled as she clenched her stomach, suddenly falling to her knees as she felt it bubble and boil inside. This was getting bad. Ruby was unable to fight, Cardin was taking full advantage of her weakened state, and nobody seemed able to do anything about it. Ruby could feel the bile rising from her stomach as it slowly crept up her throat, trying everything she could from losing it.

She failed.

"Blaarrgh!" The chuckles and laughters from the audience quickly turned to disgust as Ruby lost her previous dinner, and perhaps some bits from her lunch, on the floor before her. The only one taking any joy out of this sight was Cardin himself. Everything was going beyond what he anticipated, and the more laughter this girl earned, the more embarrassment and humiliation it would bring later.

"Dude, that's sick!"

"I can't believe she threw up in the middle of a match!"

"Why is she even in this academy?"

All around them the murmurs and gossip continued to grow as the members of Team RBPN and WYJR were forced to watch. At this point either one of the two gave up or the teacher calls the match. Cardin was too thickheaded and a jerk to consider doing anything other than beating down a helpless opponent, and Ruby was too sickly to so much as utter an audible loud word.

Neither of them were unaware of the murmurs and comments either. Here, Cardin was going to send out a message to any and all foolhardy people stupid enough to ever cross him. Ruby herself was in no better state of mind, not from the insults and murmurs coming across the crowd, just from the state of her stomach right now. Everything felt like it was boiling on fire, and it disgusted her to no end feeling it in the back of her throat! She was beyond fortunate Wolfie was staying at bay, there was no telling how well her ordering would've gone if she tried to do it sickly as she was now.

Her blurry vision shifted upwards as she saw the tip of Cardin's mace reach under her chin. Against her will and as forcefully as he could, he leaned her face upwards so she could look into his smug eyes, grinning with a knowing look as he prepared to strike once more.

"Be sure you spread the message to anyone else with bright ideas." He ordered, preparing to strike across Ruby's face like a golfer. "Anyone who cross me, gets CRUSHED!" And with an inner rage erupting, he swiped across Ruby's face as hard as he-

 _*whap*_

"Yeow!" Cardin yelped with a sudden jump as something slapped his arm out of nowhere. Much to his surprise, and that of just about everyone else, especially Ruby, there was Glynda Goodwitch herself, with her recently-used riding crop in her right hand and her scroll in the other.

"The match is cancelled, Cardin." She announced as she quickly turned the settings off. WIth the lights coming on and the screens going blank.

"Oh come on, you can't call it off just because she puked!" Cardin complained. He was just seconds away from bashing her face in and, granted it wouldn't have been as severe with her aura protecting her, getting away with it! "I bet she's just faking it!" There were several moans and boos going along the crowd which the teacher ignored, squatting down to her feet as she felt around her face for a temperature.

"That's definitely a high temperature..." She commented to herself as the sound of running footsteps could be heard

"Ruby!" Several of her friends called over as they ran to her side. Immediately, Blake helped her up to her feet, preferring to keep her standing straight in case carrying her resulted on her throwing up on herself. The result didn't appear to matter too much though as she let out a disgusting dry heave, covering her mouth with her open hand.

"Oh god..." She groaned, trying to keep the room from spinning in her vision.

"I can't believe you would try to attend a physical exam in your sickened state like this, miss Fall." Glynda said with a disappointing tone. "If you were sick, you should've just said as such."

"Mmh..." Ruby mumbled to herself for a short while before turning her attention to the teacher. "You wouldn't have believed me if I did."

"Ah-" The student made her speechless. She wasn't ignorant to the prying eyes she had, she wasn't surprised at finding out Glynda had it out for her. She knew about it all and tolerated it up to this very day, There was no saying if she remained silent just for appearance sakes or to throw Glynda off, she knew everything the teacher had against her and didn't show any signs of resisting because of it, all for the sake of keeping her, what she believed to be, purposes there a secret. "Urgh-!" Ruby groaned as she felt another try heave, this one feeling accompanied by a bit more this time.

"I'll go get a bucket." Nora said as she quickly ran off to the side to find something in case Ruby threw up again.

"Come on, I'll help you guys back to the dorm." Yang offered as she lead the way with Ruby's friends trailing behind her.

"I suppose I should call a janitor..." Glynda mumbled with a small sigh.

All of them had their worries about her, even those that didn't show it like Weiss herself. For any student to come out like this, even if they were sick, Weiss had to give respect for. Granted, if she was sick to a point as disgusting as throwing up everywhere, she would've stayed in bed to rest, but the idea was still the same. Ruby had a bit more determination in her studies than she gave her credit for.

Just a bit.

Out of the many feet that walked alongside Ruby though, Pyrrha was the one to notice a missing pair walking along the rest of them. Looking back as she walked, her eyes widened slightly at the sight of a downtrodden Jaune standing alongside the smug-looking Cardin, the bully harshly patting his back while Jaune looked away, sneezing again, with regret. It didn't take a genius to put the dots together, adding up Jaune's strange behavior this morning,

There was no way. There was no way she could believe it. Had Jaune really done something to cause all this? Was Cardin so intimidating to him that he actually double crossed everyone and tried to poison a friend of theirs? A leader at that?! Or was it worse than she thought? Did Jaune actually try to befriend Cardin just to do anything he said in the hopes of getting him to stop picking on him? That was the worst way to do things!

Then again, maybe he was just desperate? He didn't want anyone else's help anymore, and Pyrrha decided to respect his wishes with that. If this was his way of dealing with his own problems, then maybe she was wrong about someone like Jaune. On second thought, why should she care anymore? He betrayed his friends with his own two hands, and all he had to blame was himself from this point forward.

She wanted nothing more to do with him.

...

...

"Blaaagh!" The sound of Ruby throwing up could be heard from the other side of the doorway to the bathroom. Ruiby's friends and teammates looking on at the door. some with concern, others disgusted, all of them confused. The only one capable of comforting Ruby at all was her somewhat-wolf-mother, Wolfie. It was days like this Wolfie hated the most, unable to do anything for her young pup except rest by her side as Ruby lied against her fur, occasionally licking her in the hopes of comforting her young one.

At least this time Ruby made sure the door was locked, not wanting a repeat of a month ago.

"There's no way Ruby could've gotten sick so conveniently before her match with Cardin." Yang scowled crossing her arms.

"What? You think he poisoned her somehow?" Weiss wondered.

"I doubt it would've been that simple, " Ren added to the conversation, "he would've had to get close without arousing suspicion. There's no way he could've slipped by her."

"How about you Blake? Was Ruby usually sick like this?" Nora asked her Faunus teammate. As the groups became closer to one another, Blake delved a little into her past and relationship with Ruby. While she only detailed half the facts compared to what she told her team, she did reveal enough to let the others know that she and Ruby almost grew up together, meeting at least once a month.

Sadly, Blake could only shrug as she leaned against the wall. "I wouldn't know to be honest. I only hung out with her once a weekend every month. She only ever got sick at least twice during one of our hangouts, and with nearly eight years worth of visits, that's not that often."

"Blaaaaagh!" The sound of Ruby's barfing interrupted the small meeting the group was having.

"Hey Rubes, you okay in there?" Yang asked slightly worried, knocking on the door a couple times.

"I can taste this morning's breakfaaast! Ooph-! Blaaaaagh!"

"Yeah she's okay."

"So what are we going to do about Cardin?" Pyrrha asked around. "It's fortunate Ruby was allowed a makeup exam after tomorrow, but that doesn't mean he won't try to do something like this again."

"Well, you shot down breaking his arms and legs, so I say we break his neck!" Nora suggested with as much as excitement as yesterday's leg-breaking suggestion.

"Nora, that's gonna kill him." Ren remarked with a slight roll of his eyes.

"Oh... Then we break his spine!"

"Doesn't sound like a bad idea..." Yang mumbled to herself. "Look, whatever happened, all we need to do is keep Cardin away from Ruby until the next exam is over. I doubt he'll bother with her after unless he has an audience."

"But that doesn't help us if we don't know how he did it to begin with." Weiss pointed out. "He managed to somehow poison her without any of us knowing, so whatever he did he could easily do again."

Suffice to say, that was an extremely well-made and troubling point. None of them could figure out how Cardin managed to do this in the first place. He used nothing but brute force constantly to bully and harrass people around him, and with somebody like that there's no way he had some sort of semblance that gave him some sneaking advantage. It was just as unlikely that he had some other semblance that could make her sick either, otherwise he'd be using it constantly to bully anyone around him, even Yang.

 _*knock*_

 _*knock*_

Like moths to all eyes were brought to the sound of someone knocking on the front door. Being the closest to it, Pyrrha took it upon herself to check out the mystery knocker was, opening it just wide enough for herself to see, only to grow surprisingly disgusted by the sight of the person.

"Uhh h-hey Pyrrha." Jaune greeted nervously. "There's some medicine for Ruby-"

 ** _*WHAM*_**

In the blink of an eye, Pyrrha snatched the mysterious green bottle out of Jaune's hands before slamming the door shut, not giving Jaune a chance to let so much as a toe within the dorm's room. To him, it was because of how he acted yesterday. He knew he was a huge jerk, perhaps half as much as Cardin, after he yelled at her about bothering him and wanting to deal with his own problems. In reality, he was completely unaware of Pyrrha's suspicions that he was somehow responsible for what was wrong with Ruby.

She could tolerate his annoyance and refusal to accept her help. She would never tolerate the idea of someone poisoning one of her friends and fellow teammates just because someone told her to.

"Who was at the door?" Ren asked before noticing Pyrrha's stern look.

"Wrong door." She sputtered, earning some curious and confusing looks from those around her as she walked over to the bathroom Ruby was occupying. "Ruby? I got some medicine for you." She said rolling the bottle under the door's frame. She didn't want to risk the chance of anyone seeing the giant wolf present behind Ruby herself, provided she wasn't well enough to actually send her away at the moment. Even if she did, she'd rather not enter the room or open the door to the smell of fresh vomit going off every several minutes.

"Thank you..." She could be heard replying. The group waited several moments to see if there was some sort of reaction from from the sickly girl. What they got wasn't too surprising. "Bleeegh! It tastes like a jar full of sweat! Blaaaagh!" She whined throwing up after.

"What the heck was that stuff?" Yang asked curiously.

"Some sort of nausea medicine," Pyrrha replied, "I think it'll help her with her vomiting."

"I"m more concerned she knows what a jar full of sweat tastes like?" Weiss commented, briefly pondering the reason in her mind before shriveling with disgust. "On second though I don't wanna know..."

"Did the person at the door give it to you?" Blake looked back to the entrance as she asked. "Who was it?"

"Hmph, no one important." Pyrrha put it bluntly. Her response raised more questions than answers, but nobody cared for it. They were just glad Ruby had some form of medicine at this point to deal with her constant throw-ups.

At the same time, Jaune kept his head down as he heard the conversations beyond the door. Pyrrha was really mad, there was no way he couldn't see it. He felt like such a screw-up at that moment. Not considering the fact she knew he was responsible, she had every reason to be mad at him. It wasn't enough for just the previous reasons either. Right now he was too afraid to confront the entire group and tell of him of his problems. With everyone in the room at once, there was no way he'd be able to keep from confessing what Cardin tasked him with.

Even if he somehow managed to keep his composure, there was no way he wouldn't be able to tell everyone about Cardin. They knew he was a bully and he wanted nothing more than to see him get his comeuppance. He just couldn't risk the chance of him ratting out Jaune's secret to Glynda and getting him expelled!

He spent his whole life admiring and wanting to follow in his family's footsteps. Growing up with such heroes, he would hear on and on about the heroic exploits of his father, the grand adventures from his grandfather, and the tales of epicness of his great grandfather! What did Jaune have compared to any of that? Nothing! He had absolutely nothing!

He wanted to make a name for himself, being known out there in the world. Everywhere he went he wanted to hear people say "Hey look, it's Jaune, the Hero of Vale!" or something like "Is that Jaune? I heard he took down seven Nevermores without breaking a sweat!", and the works. Out of all of this, he just wanted someone to give him a little recognition.

Maybe that's what drove him to be Cardin's lacky? Maybe it was greed? He was so desperate to do anything to stay within Beacon that he would turn on his friends. Maybe it was loneliness? No, scratch that. How could he feel lonely before this started? He had great friends that supported him, faults and all. They liked him for who he was no matter what he did or how many times he screwed up. No matter how many times he failed, they always praised his determination and courage.

But he couldn't look at himself now, or his runny nose. He had nothing. He felt like nothing. And as far as he knew, he was nothing. So he did the only thing a nothing like him could do, and walked down the hallway in shame.

To nothing.

...

...

"Yes students, the Forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful." Glynda went on as she lead the students through the beautiful red forest.

The next day was like many of the other ones the students of Beacon were greeted to, with another class and another field trip like they usually took once a week. Today's trip was more literal in the field of things as today they found themselves exploring through the beautiful forest of Forever Fall, the name given for it's Fall-colored leaves year-around.

Thankfully, today also started much more brightly for many of the students, especially Team RBPN's members. Bright and early, first thing in the morning, Ruby managed to greet her friends with the same enthusiastic happy smile on her face that she always greeted with, as well as the quirky shenanigans that usually ensued that morning. Needless to say, given the amount of vomiting she went through the previous day, losing a day's worth of contents from her stomach, she was starving that morning. Fortunately, she managed to keep everything down just fine. Whatever medicine Pyrrha took from Jaune proved to be super effective for Ruby's ailment.

He wasn't off the hook with her though. All throughout the morning breakfast, she didn't so much as glance in his direction as they spoke, even though Jaune remained silent for most of the morning anyway. When it came time to question him about his whereabouts the other day, he went on with how he was just busy gathering everyone's homework that afternoon since the seven students were caught up with Ruby's sickened state. It was believable for the most part, although they were confused as to why it took him till late in the evening to return, Jaune being forced to go on about how he forgot everyone's classes and had to relook. Many of his friends acknowledged this reasoning whereas Pyrrha just scoffed.

The only amount of decency she had for him was what kept her from blowing the lid on Jaune's secret involvement with Ruby's sickness. She hated him more than anything for it, but she couldn't bring herself to rat him out like that. If he did it again, then of course she would've been more than happy to but she was still too respectful of him. She knew for a fact he'd end up with several bruises from both teams if any of the others found out about his secret, and despite everything he's done up to this point, she didn't want to be responsible for any injuries he suffered in turn.

That was the level of cruelty that Cardin cherished, one she would never stoop to.

"But we are not here to sight-see." Glynda continued. "Professor Peaches asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside the forest. And I'm here to make sure you don't die while doing so." After another minute's worth of walking she finally came to a halt in the middle of the clearing, the perfect spot to view all of her students as they went about their tasks. "Each of you is to gather a jar's worth of red sap. However, the forest is full of creatures of Grimm, so be sure to stay by your... team... mates..." All eyes slowly followed along with the teachers as they noticed the growing silence. "Miss Fall, is something the matter?"

Her question wasn't misplaced. For some possibly-concerning reason, Ruby seemed to be out of it again. This time around, as opposed to looking sickly, her entire body was fidgeting from under her cloak. She just had a nervous smile on her face as she tried to feign innocence, doing everything she could to keep her cloak closed all around her. "Heh heh, n-nothing Ms. Goodwitch! J-Just some uhh... stomach cramps!" She lied, earning a few chuckles from some various students.

That was the one dilemma she had to face all morning. Throughout her day, thanks to the mysterious illness she suffered the other day, she's been getting teased and made fun of nonstop. From "Vomit Girl" to "Drooly", the insults and names never ceased. That's not even counting the near hundreds of random people just snickering in the hallways as she passed as they poked fun of her, all of which Ruby was too aware of.

She didn't let it get to her though. Not out of self-respect or anything, she was just aware and predicting this sort of reaction from her fellow Hunters and Huntresses. Nothing but scum who would go around and poke fun of people for reasons beyond their control, whether or not it embarasses them. They were worse than animals in a way, at least they didn't go around making fun of their own kind due to some disability or something.

Not counting cartoons, anyway.

"Miss Fall, if you're still not feeling well, you should've said as much before traveling." Glynda told her, tapping her chin unsurprise. Regardless of how she looked, Ruby continued to give her a nervous chuckle as she waved her hands enthusiastically.

"No, no, seriously, I'm good! I just need to walk it off! Let's go Blake!" Ruby quickly said, grabbing Blake by the wrist before pulling her along in a running sprint.

"W-Wait, why do I have to go?!" Whatever was up with Ruby she needed to find out. Given how important and worried Ruby was acting though, they definitely needed somewhere unoccupied.

"Huff, I can never get a read on that child..." Glynda sighed to herself as she returned to the rest of the class. "We'll rendezvous here at four o'clock. Stay safe, and have fun."

Fun was what most kids did, and fun was what most of them planned on doing during their time there. For some, it came from simply hanging out with their teammates and others around the schools as they explored a little of the woods while doing their assignments. For others, it was Cardin enjoying the sight of Jaune carrying his stuff for him along with the rest of his team's jars.

It didn't matter to Pyrrha how much Jaune refused to stand up, she still felt a little sorry for how pushed he was getting. She explored the woods for a few seconds until she found the leader of Jaune's team, the leader herself being assisted with Yang as she carefully filled the jar at a measured level.

"Excuse me, Weiss?" Pyrrha called as she approached.

"Huh? Oh hey Pyrrha, something wrong?" Weiss asked as she continued gathering her sample.

"Aren't you the least bit curious or worried as to why Jaune's helping Cardin with the assignment?" The question earned her a few heads turning her way, specifically Yang's and Ren's who was approaching the group with more jars.

"We don't know what's going on either, but he said he could handle it on his own." Yang replied, trading her empty jar for the next full one Weiss handed her.

"And you let him go just like that?!"

"It's not like we wanted him to or anything." Ren retorted as he organized the box of jars. "But he kept insisting he needed to do it."

"He wouldn't even let me deck the guy in the gut." Yang growled irritated. "I know that guy had something to do with Ruby getting sick, I wanna smash the truth out of him!" It was fortunate the three were preoccupied with their assignments, otherwise the small frown growing on Pyrrha's face would've drawn suspicion.

"Well... W-What would you have done if someone else had did it?" She asked uneasily.

"Trust me, when it comes to Yang, it wouldn't matter." Weiss responded in turn looking back. "And honestly, i wouldn't blame her. None of us are going to be fine until we figure out how Cardin poisoned Ruby."

"Yeah speaking of being fine, you might wanna go check up on Ruby." Yang suggested pointing down a path. "I think her stomach's acting up or something. I think she said something about a wolf?"

"W-Wolf?!" Pyrrha eeped. None of the three could catch a glance of the panicked expression on Pyrrha's face before she dashed down the pathway towards her remaining team. All this did do was grow curious faces on the three members left behind.

"I'll never understand why Ruby calls her stomach Wolfie..."

At the same time, coming up along the path, Pyrrha was greeted with the sight of a frantic Ruby and a nervous Blake trying to keep the situation under control. "What's going on?"

"Nnngh, its the sap!" Ruby squeaked. It was at that time Pyrrha could finally see some strange shufflings going on from within Ruby's cloak. It was as if the cloak itself was alive as it waved around her whole body, trying to break free. She didn't need Ruby's following explanation to understand what was behind all this. "It's driving Wolfie nuts!" As if to confirm this, there was a brief brush of fur trailing along the ends of Ruby's cloak, followed by the pleading whine of a wolf begging for a treat.

"I thought you had the wolf under control?" Blake began to worry as she attempted to push the cloak closed, just like how Ruby was doing everything in her power to pull it shut.

"I usually do, but she goes crazy for this sap whenever she's near it!" Ruby yelped. It wasn't enough that she was dealing with the wolf trying to break out, the harder part was trying to maintain composure and keep a straight face from bursting out laughing as the wolf's fur continued to brush around Ruby's body. At the same time, it was also causing a mild irritation across some of her exposed skin, leaving her in a horrendous state of ticklish and itchiness all at the same time. "Someone really needs to give her some, like now!"

"I sent Nora off to get some a few minutes ago. She should be coming back anytime soon now." Blake stated, looking around for any sign of her returning.

"Wait, you sent Nora out to collect the sap?" Pyrrha questioned, earning a slightly worried look from Blake.

"Yeah... Why?"

 ***Uuuuuuuuuuurp!***

"Ah, that hit the spot." A satisfied and happy Nora sighed, wiping the remaining sap from her mouth.

"Noraaaa!" Ruby mumbled. "I needed that stuff for Wolfie!" The mere mention of the fluffable wolf made Nora's eyes bug out.

"What? Wolfie? Is she alright?!" She panicked.

"Yes Nora, she-" Ruby paused as a sudden idea came to her mind. "I-I mean no, she's not, she's terribly sick!"

"Terribly si-mmph!" Blake's repeated confusion earned her a hand covering her mouth as Ruby continued.

"Seriously, she's incredibly sick! She needs the sap stuff to make her all better!" Pyrrha understood where Ruby was going with this as she saw the humorous state she put Nora in.

"OHMIGOSH! Why didn't you say so!?" Nora screeched pulling her hair in a panic. "Hang on Wolfie, I'll be right back!" Faster than they could blink Nora vanished from their eyes, leaving only a trail of dust in her path as she disappeared into the forest.

"That girl really is motivated when she needs to be..." Pyrrha commented as she went back to Ruby. "Anyway, is there anything we can do to help?"

...

At the same time, the four key members of the Bully Society were lounging around under the majestic Forever Fall trees, having the time of their life. There was nothing like the nice comfort that came from being able to lounge around all day while someone else did all the work for them. They could just rest, lay back, enjoy the finer things in life, and know that no matter what sort of assignments were given to them, they could always rely on somebody to take care of it for them.

That person was Jaune Arc.

As _shocking_ as it was to say, Jaune was a little less for wear when it came to their tasks. Numerous homework assignments needed, sharpening and cleaning their weapons, paying for all the snacks they requested throughout the school day, all of it was becoming a bit too much for the young desperate boy.

And that was just the stuff he was forced to do this morning! Don't get him started on the nightmares he had to endure yesterday from Cardin's team. As of right now, he was just returning after a long and grueling process of collecting tree samples for Cardin's entire team, including himself. To make the process more annoying and irritable for him, he also had to acquire a sixth jar for an unknown reason, the process still taking nearly five minutes at a time to collect each jar.

It was a process that was slowly turning his mind to mush, and not helping the allergies building up in his already running nose. By the time he got back to the group he was nothing short of exhausted, collapsing in the spot in the middle of the clearing Cardin's team was relaxing.

"Ugggh!" He groaned as he fell.

"Hey, great work Jauney boy." Cardin congratulated as he walked over to his fallen servant. "Now that wasn't too hard, was it?"

"Ngh... I think this stuff is making my cold worse..." He sniffled.

"Great, great, great." Cardin completely ignored his state of being. "So Jaune, you're probably asking yourself, "why did my buddy Cardin ask me to collect six jars of tree sap when there are only five of us"?"

"That is among the various questions I've been asking for the last several days, yes." He moaned getting back to his feet achely.

"Well, come with me and you'll find out." The grin growing on his face told Jaune what he was already aware of.

"Oh..." This was bad.

It was only a few short yards before the remainder of Cardin's group lead Jaune to the cliff of the hillside they were on, staying low to the ground as they kept themselves hidden behind some of the tall red grass. Cardin was the only one of the four who stuck himself up a little higher as he looked closely over the hill, all waiting on their dependable Jaune to crawl over to his side, where Jaune caught a glimpse of what excited them so much.

The same excitement would be replaced by fear for only him.

Below the clearing, he saw the numerous and friendly faces of his fellow teams and friends, or friend-ish on some cases for those who were still mad at him. Up ahead he could see his own team diligently working as they collected the last of the samples. With the loveable Weiss Schnee at the head of the order, she wiped the sweat from her brow as she nodded back to Yang, confirming their completion of the task at hand. At the same time, Ruby's team was a little less than prepared. The poor hooded girl seemed to be frantically rubbing from the inside of her cloak, something bothering her entire body as Blake and Pyrrha stod close in the hopes of trying to help her.

"I swear I'm starting to get a rash from this!" Ruby whined as her face twitched, just audible enough for Cardin's team to hear.

"Well what do ya know? Little Fall is allergic to this stuff to." Cardin chuckled, not knowing the true extent of Ruby's dismay. "This is going to be fun."

"Um... fun?" Jaune gulped. Cardin always meant the opposite to whenever he said something was going to be fun, it really wasn't. It was going to be terrible.

"Payback-fun, Jauney boy." He specified, practically whacking Jaune as he patted him on the back.

"You... want to get back at Pyrrha and Blake for class the other day ago..."

"It's like I told you before Jaune, no one gets away with humiliating me." He glared back at the trio of girls who were still waiting for Nora. "It's time someone taught the red head and the black Faunus-lover what happens when you mess with me. It's just now, we're going to get a three-for-one special with all three of them in the same place." And with a look of satisfaction, he pulled out another small box from behind him.

"Alright boys, last night ol' Jaune here managed to round up an entire box of rapier wasps. And now, we're going to put 'em to good use." Only now was Jaune regretting the multiple times he was right in his life. Every time he was, it usually ended up being bad. All he could do was chuckle nervously and pray this wasn't going as expected. "Now, according to the essay Jaune wrote for me a few days ago, these nasty little things loooove sweets. So I'm thinking, why let Ruby have all the embarrassment when we can give it to all three of them!"

"Heh heh, with all the bees chasing them around the forest and the sap covering them, nobody will let them live this down for a long time!" Russel commented as he laughed.

"And that's where you're gonna come in, Jauney boy." He announced, looking back to the one tool that would make this all possible. "We're gonna teach them a lesson they'll never forget." He tossed the sixth extra jar into Jaune's hands. "Now, hit 'em with the tree sap! Either that, or I'll have a good chat with Goodwitch, and you'll be on the first airship out of Beacon."

This was it. This was where it was all leading up to. What choice did he have anyway? None! The answer to all this was pretty simple, right? All he had to do was throw the jaw at the trio of friends, all of whom were already frantic and panicking as they tried to help their beloved team leader, Ruby, the girl who had already suffered humiliation and embarrassment from yesterday's sparring session, and the girl who seemed to be having her own allergic reaction to the surrounding tree sap within the woods.

He didn't need to think that hard on it, right? It was either continue doing what they wanted, or be expelled for good and not only be considered the one failure of his family, but tarnish the rest of his family name with his illegal entry. It wouldn't just ruin his life, it would destroy the work and credibility that the rest of his family worked so hard to build.

Besides, they all deserved it, right? He just had to keep thinking of every reason behind it as he prepared to throw. First there was Ruby, the hyperactive mystery girl who was rather unusual in her own way. From social mannerisms to her history for the last several years, there wasn't the least normal thing about her. And being normal was a sin around here...right?

Then there was Blake, the self-entitled sister who always stuck by Ruby's side through the bitter end. What a horrible thing for a person to do! To be so loyal to another friend that they would stay by their side no matter what, always being with them and supporting them through their most troubling endeavors.

And then there was Pyrrha, the worst of them all. The girl who was always nice, the girl who surpassed most of her studies, both mental and physical, and the only one to ever offer her assistances to Jaune in person, going out of the way of her own work to help him in his time of need. What did you call that? Decency. And decency was the absolute worse thing for any Hunter or Huntress in the world to have!

...Oh who was he kidding?

"...No." He turned away still feeling shameful. These weren't reasons to throw at them, they were the complete opposite! And all of it started out because Jaune was too afraid to say no to his constant bully, the only one whoever did deserve to have this jar thrown at them.

"What did you say?" Cardin grumbled walking over. There was no way he heard what he thought he heard.

"I said... No!" Jaune repeated. Cardin was bigger than him, stronger than him, and tougher than him. But there was no way he was going to betray his friends again. With nothing more than anger in his heart, at those who bullied him and himself, he tossed his problems away behind him, along with the jar.

Only to realize too soon of the Cardin the jar landed on.

Naturally everyone was speechless. It was about time someone like Jaune had the guts to do something, and he had to go and waste them by doing something as stupid as this. Rubbing the sap a little to make sure he wasn't hallucinating, what was supposed to be Cardin's rage was replaced by a look of wicked glee. He didn't care what Jaune did, only that he now had an excuse for what he had to do next.

"Ohhh, Jauney boy... you shouldn't have done that." He warned. Jaune thought all too correctly at what was going to happen next as Cardin's friends grabbed him.

This was going to hurt.

...

...

...

 ** _A/N: Hooftah, what another chapter ^^ I like it when I can get them out long like this, but then I start feeling guilty when the follow-ups are shorter in comparison X/ Oh well, hope everyone still had fun with today's post! Sorry for the early posting here for those who might've missed it till now- I was supposed to get this on last night but the writing took me forever, and the time screw ups only made things worse, so I had to fix those I could find._**

 ** _Anyway hope you enjoyed today's episode! Chances are tomorrow's will be shorter which I apologize for, but I will be working on two episodes tomorrow- mostly cause I'll be gone all day Thursday so will have to post those two on my docs manager tomorrow and have the 2nd one ready to post from work when I can._**

 ** _Confusing yes, just know it means there will be a post the next two days...hopefully..._**

 ** _Anyway, hope you enjoyed today's episode! Leave a like, fav, and review if you enjoyed, and hope to see you soon ^^!_**


	40. Vol 1 Episode 14: Forever Fall Part 2

_**A/N: I am overly shocked and extremely happy with the length of this one X) a whopping 9.2k Pre-A/N's! I think it's safe to say my excitement is returning to this series, faster than I had anticipated.**_

 _ **Anyway, now its time for the conclusion of this small arc (no pun intended), and above all... I'm going to enjoy everyone's reaction X). You'll know why too.**_

 _ **Until then, enjoy!**_

 _ **...**_

 _ **...**_

 _ **...**_

 ** _~This will be the day we waited for~_**

 _Cinder and salem are seen standing on a balcony on the side of the latter's home looking out in the distance to where Vale would be. As they look up to a Nevermore flying overhead, the camera pans up as well, showing an orange sky that slowly turns blue._

 ** _~This will be the day we open up the door~_**

 _Returning back down from its view of the sky, we see Ruby opening the door to Beacon's main hall, Wolfie peaking out behind her, Blake standing next to her, oblivious to the Grimm's presence._

 ** _~I don't wanna hear your absolution~_**

 _The Camera 'flies' through the hallways until it settles on Ozpin going through illegible notes on his scroll next to a photo of young miss Fall._

 ** _~Hope your ready for a revolution~_**

 _Outside his window, WYJR can be seen standing together. As the screen is overtaken by a storm of white petals, Weiss pushes Jaune a bit away._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of new solutions~_**

 _One of the petals remain before a black background and is revealed to be Ruby as she pulls out [insert weapon name] and starts twirling her Scythe around, leaving a burning crimson Halo above herself._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of blood evolution~_**

 _The red halo turns into Wolfie's red Iris as the camera zooms out revealing the pool of blood beneath the Grimm. before he dissolves into a shadow and to the side._

 ** _~In time your heart will open minds~_**

 _The shadow flows beneath Ruby cloak who is standing with her team, a conflicted expression on her face. Soon though it is replaced with a look of determination as the Camera pans once more._

 ** _~A Story will be told~_**

 _When the camera settles on Ruby's viewpoint we see Amber kneeling before Cinder, before the camera zooms back and her surroundings turn into the vault beneath Beacon._

 ** _~And Victory is in a Simple Soul~_**

 _We see a final shot of a young Ruby hugging her family, which reveals itself to be an old picture in Salem's Hand who is enjoying tea served by Neo._

 _ ***WHAM!***_

"Oof!" Jaune groaned in pain as he was smacked to the ground again.

Well way to go Jaune, you finally have something to be proud of. You stuck to your guns, stood up against your bullies, and faced one of your many fears! He could tell in the future, he was going to look back on this day and tell his own kids how he heroically stood up against his bully, showed his guts of steel, and triumphed over the day!

Too bad, Cardin was most likely going to rip them out of him now.

There wasn't any fairness about it either, though if you were to ask Cardin he would say otherwise. For once in both their lives, he wasn't about to beat the living snot out of Jaune for disobeying him. He gave him the one simple order of throwing a jar of Forever Fall tree sap over Pyrrha, Blake, and Ruby, the latter of who appeared to have some kind of reaction to it in the form of a skin rash. Not to mention the fact she was already suffering embarrassment and ridicule from her fellow classmates for reasons Jaune was still trying to comprehend. Her embarrassing display at yesterday's sparring exam would never be lived down.

To them at least.

And what did Jaune do instead of that? He stood his ground for the first time. He couldn't go through with it. How could he? None of those girls were mean, none of them deserved any ounce of the tree sap over them. If anything, Jaune was the one who would rather poor it over himself if it meant sparing them. Instead of that, he did something he nor Cardin had ever expected, which entailed throwing the tree sap over at Cardin himself, covering his chest with the sticky pink substance.

So hooray for that! That was a proud milisecond moment of Jaune's life. Unfortunately his one moment of pride was cut short by the violent thrashing of Cardin and his goons. The smug bully was actually taking more enjoyment out of this than he thought he would. Thanks to Jaune splattering the sap on him, it gave him a very reasonable excuse to continue his beating quota.

With another cheesy grin, he lifted Jaune by the collar of his shirt again before smacking him down once more. "You know that really wasn't smart, Jauney boy." He said cracking his knuckles. By now Jaune's face was covered in bruises and a cut lip, none of which mattered to the young Arc as he continued to stand his ground. "I'm gonna make sure they send you back to mommy in teeny, tiny, pieces."

"Ngh..." Jaune grunted as he grabbed Cardin's hand weakly. "I don't care what you do to me anymore, I'm not gonna let you mess with my friends anymore!" Out of the many faces Cardin made throughout this beating, this was the first one that looked relatively surprised.

"You think talking like that makes you tough?" He yelled smacking him back down to the ground. "I'm going to show you exactly what makes a man tough, Jauney boy."

This was going to be painful.

...

Meanwhile, at the same time, Ruby was having her own predicament to deal with. Coming to Forever Fall forest was a pleasant experience at first after all the trouble she's had to deal with since yesterday. Of all the times for her to get sick, it had to have happened on the same day she had a sparring exam in front of the entire school. She felt dizzy, nauseated, unbalanced, hot, sweaty, and delirious all at the same time. It would've been enough to just deal with that, but out of all the hundreds of students she had to go against, it happened to be against Cardin Winchester him, the number one bully of the school.

Not surprisingly, he didn't take her state of being lightly, or show any sympathy or mercy to the sickened girl. He pounded her across the small arena throughout the exam, gloating and teasing her at every corner as she weakly tried to fight back. Eventually it got to the point where her sickness caught up to her, thanks to the assisted kneeing she took to the stomach that dropped her to her knees. With little willpower to fightback, she collapsed to her knees as she lost her breakfast, yesterday's dinner, and part of yesterday's lunch all over the floor from her mouth, right in front of hundreds of students, her friends and teammates included, who continued teasing her and poking fun at her sickness all morning.

Of course, all her friends were suspicious of these turn of events. For Ruby to just coincidentally get sick right at the same time for her match with Cardin was all too perfectly timed. All of them assumed correctly in that Cardin had something to do with all of this. The only thing one of them, Pyrrha, did know though was who was responsible for directly poisoning Ruby.

Jaune Arc.

She wished endlessly that what she saw was just her mind playing tricks on her, that she was just getting ahead of herself since she was more preoccupied and worried for her team leader. The way Cardin praised Jaune after the match, the guilty look on Jaune's face as Ruby's and Weiss's Team helped their sick friend to bed, there was no way he wasn't a part of it. Sure, Cardin indefinitely bullied Jaune into doing it somehow, not knowing about Cardin's eavesdropping on the rooftop the day before the match, but that was still no excuse. She hated herself for ever thinking Jaune was different than the rest of them, thinking he was more professional than the rest of the everyday students at school. To think she actually cared about him for thinking he had troubles of his own to deal with.

And here she was, thinking incorrectly. She saw Jaune as someone different and he immediately proved her wrong. He gave into the bullying, he gave in to Cardin's demands, and he went as far as to follow along with whatever plan he pulled that involved poisoning Ruby. Now, she couldn't care less about what happened to Jaune, no matter how much it hurt her.

Besides, right now, he wasn't the one that needed help, not that she knew at least. Apparently, the trees within Forever Fall Forest had a strange attraction for the numerous Grimm surrounding it. They loved the smell of the sweet sap, the bitter sweetness it gave with each taste. It was like bringing a bucket of fish to swim in a pool filled with worms, the bait was endless and the temptation plentiful. There was no way any of the creatures could resist the alluring scent of Forever Fall tree sap.

Unfortunately, that included a certain Grimm by the name of Wolfie, Ruby's guardian and pet since childhood that's literally been a part of her since she merged with Ruby's shadow. No matter how much willpower Ruby exerted, the orders she constantly threw at her, she wasn't staying at bay. She wanted the tree sap, she NEEDED the tree sap, it was just too good to resist! It was taking a combination of Ruby's physical and willpower, along with Blake's and Pyrrha's assistance in trying to push it in, to keep her cloak closed, the only means presently for Wolfie to escape from Ruby's person. She had enough willpower to keep her from appearing from her shadow, but with her entire body encased in shadow under the cloak, there was only so long she could maintain control before losing it. It only grew worse as the wolf's fur continued to scrap softly across Ruby's skin, creating a combination of a ticklish sensation and itchiness all at the same time.

"I'm back!" Nora quickly announced, panting out of breath. The only one who loved the tree sap almost as much as Wolfie was Nora Valkyrie, the hammer-weilding powerhouse of team RBPN. She loved the sweet-tasting sap, she craved it. The only other thing she cherished more though was the adorable bag of fluff known as Wolfie, the pup she would do just about anything for for it's love and affection. So it was no surprise that she returned with nearly a dozen jars filled with the delicious sap, only half of them half empty due to the irresistible urge Nora had to taste some of it. That alone was nothing short of shocking given Nora's love for the sap. It didn't really help that in order to get Nora to get the sap and actually return with full jars that Ruby had to lie and tell her Wolfie needed it for medicine. "Is Wolfie okay?!"

"Urgh- She's... NghhhAhhh!" Ruby yelped as Wolfie finally burst out of her cloak, Blake and Pyrrha both getting thrown back themselves. Normally the sight of any Grimm suddenly lunging at a teenager would terrify any youngster. Like everything else with Wolfie, Nora just embraced it with an excited smile on her face, one that slowly dwindled as she realized the dog was about to body slam her.

 _*_ **THUMP** _*_

"Ugh... Nora!" Ruby shook the small dizziness that built up in her head, all her will returning to her in a rush, as she quickly checked on Nora herself.

The sight of it wasn't at all gruesome or terrifying. It was actually more of a sight of relief. There Nora lied, pinned down by Wolfie's giant paw, as she continued to chuckle and giggle as the wolf ticklishly licked around her. The jars were just about your everyday variety of jars, possibly more durable than the rest. Due to her haste of wanting to save Wolfie as quickly as possible though, she failed to supply any way of actually closing the jars herself, and with the simple tackle of an excited wolf, the jars were tossed several feet in the air, splattering the jar's contests everywhere around and on top of Nora herself. Thankfully Wolfie was more content with just licking the sap, whether or not Ruby's own will played a factor in it, as she just licked up the tasty tree residue as opposed to possibly gobbling it along with Nora who continued to squirm.

"Ah- hahah- st-st-stop that tickles!" She squeaked, flailing her arms and kicking her legs top stop the monstrous creature. With the deed done and still enough jars lying around with just enough sap in most of them to complete the assignment, Ruby let out a sigh of relief as she wiped the sweat from her brow.

"Phew, finally. I don't know how much longer I could've lasted with Wolfie's squirming and tickling." She commented.

"Tch-pfft -haahahah! Sp-ahaha-sp-speak for yourself! Hehehe!" Nora chuckled, doing everything she could to contain the immense laughter. No matter how much the rest of Ruby's team accepted Wolfie, there was little doubt anyone coming across the scene of a giant wolf having another student pinned down would incite a panic. Even with it's tail wagging with joy, it was still a Grimm, notorious enemy of Hunters and Huntresses everywhere.

"Well least the wolf's finally calmed down." Blake smiled a little as she scratched the content wolf behind the ears.

"Do you think we should maybe keep some of the sap for her?" Pyrrha wondered scratching her chin in thought. "It might be a reliable way to keep Wolfie under control in case something unexpected happens."

"I don't see why not." Ruby nodded with a smile. "Besides, she loves this stuff, so it'll be a nice treat for her once in awhile." The trio's attention shifted back to the sight of Wolfie as she finally let up from Nora, letting out a pup-like yawn as she stretched along the ground.

As for Nora herself, she was about as much as you could expect given what just happened to her. Getting back to her own feet, she was covered from head to toe in wolf slobber, drool running across her entire body as she was entirely covered in drool. Her eyes were practically bugged out along with her hair which was risen on all ends, all sticky from a mixture of the dog slobber and what little remains of the tree sap still in her hair. While most people would've been rather disgusted after what happened to them, Nora was more than thrilled at what just transpired, finally finding a means to get Wolfie to play with her from now on instead of running away in fear.

"Huff... That was awesome." Nora squealed, still excited, as she wiped away what she could with the drool.

"Yeah, you might wanna find a way to dry off before we get back." Pyrrha replied as she examined Nora. "Otherwise you're going to need to find a way to explain why you're soaking wet..."

"Heh, we'll find a way." Ruby chuckled as she smiled back to Wolfie. "Alright Wolfie, let's go." With the pup's command, having finally finished her stretching, the Wolfie stood up again on it's paws as it prepared to follow her command. But just as she was about to, Wolfie's head shifted to the side as she gazed up the nearby hill, staring at it for a few seconds before grinding her teeth angrily.

"Grrrrrr!" She growled. Both Blake and Pyrrha were taken back slightly by this, being the first time they've ever seen the Grimm angry about something.

"Wolfie?" Ruby questioned, walking to her side to pet her head calmingly.

"What's wrong with her now?" Pyrrha asked, growing concerned about the Grimm's sudden aggression. Ruby looked off in the same direction as the mighty wolf, having seen this kind of reaction numerous times.

"Something's wrong." Wolfie merged back into Ruby's shadow as Ruby herself ran up the hill. The remaining three members looked at each other with unease before trailing along behind her.

A Grimm was something to be wary of, always being a symbol of death and destruction to those around them. So when a Grimm found something it's own self considered a threat, that could only mean trouble...

...

"Ought-!" Jaune coughed onto the ground, his cold making bits of drool slide a little down his chin. He didn't care anymore what happened to him. Cardin could beat him, heck, beat him to death at this rate, and he still wouldn't relent. He was going to be a true Hunter for once and stand face-to-face with his problems for the first time ever. If only it didn't hurt in the process, that would be a huge help.

"Oh Jauney boy, why must you be so difficult?" Cardin teased again with another crack of his knuckles. Any time Jaune took more than ten seconds to get back to his feet, Cardin's own teammates "helped" him up, standing him up by his arms until Jaune regained his balance, just so Cardin could knock him down again. It was really fun at first, at least to Cardin, yet even he was starting to get annoyed with Jaune's stubbornness. "All you have to do is throw the stupid sap Jaune. Is that so hard to do? Hey, Russel, am I being unreasonable here?"

"Tch, doesn't seem unfair to me Cardin." He joked with a smug grin back.

"Gee, really?" Cardin crossed his arms in a playful manner.

"Hey Sky, Dove, do you think I'm being unreasonable?" Just like Russel, they replied with a joking demeanor.

"Not to me boss, I think you're being more than fair."

"If you ask me, I think Jaune's actually taking advantage of you myself!"

"Wow, what a mean thing to do Jaune." Cardin mocked, pretending to shake his head in a disapproving manner while lifting Jaune by his shirt's collar. "So I'm going to give you one last chance to redeem yourself Jaune. Do it!"

At the same time, Ruby and her friends had gathered along the edge of the hill, only far enough for their heads to pop out and more than enough to see what was going on. While they didn't know the reasons behind all this, they could see enough to figure out what was causing Wolfie to suddenly act aggressively. Apparently, whatever they were talking about, there was a lot of anger and frustration growing from the four bullies who continued to beat up the guilt-ridden Jaune, their negative emotions being sensed by the wolf Grimm moments ago.

While the majority of the group couldn't tell the reasoning behind this other than simple bullying, Pyrrha was the only one who truly found herself at a cross. Ever after all that's been done, everything Jaune did that affected Ruby and the rest of her team in turn, she just couldn't bear it. She couldn't stand the sight of watching another helpless student getting beaten up by the school's head bullies, watching them as they continued to laugh and torment someone weaker than them just for standing up to them. That wasn't stupidity or pride getting to him, that was someone full of regret that was trying to make amends.

That, was a Hunter.

"What the heck's going on?!" Ruby nearly yelped, trying to contain her frustrations. It was one thing to watch Cardin pick on someone, it was entirely something else to watch a group of no-good Hunters pick on one single person.

"Oooh, I knew I should've broken their arms!" Nora grumbled. "That's it, new plan: I'm breaking their ribs!" She announced as she prepared to stand out. Much to the surprise of her and the rest of Team RBPN though, she was halted by Pyrrha grabbing her wrist.

"Wait, Nora, girls, we can't rush in there." She stated, earning natural confused and perplexed expressions from her three teammates.

"Why not? We could seriously save him in seconds!" It was the odds that Blake knew were in their favor. RBPN's team was a line up of students gifted in their various strengths. CRDL's only strength was brute force, so putting the two together made the odds very favorable.

"That's just it, he's not going to want our help." She retorted. "It's a pride thing, he's trying to stand up for himself."

"So what? We should just wait until they kill him before we help him?!" Ruby stammered. She knew Hunters were trouble, but this was a far low even by her standards. Not only were they proving themselves to be cowards at this point, they didn't even care about doing the work anymore! At least with the people who only helped in front of an audience to show themselves off actually got the work done!

"No, I'm not saying we shouldn't help him, I just..." Pyrrha paused looking back to the fighting. Screw whatever Jaune's preferences were. if she couldn't think of anything else to do at this point, she would've more than gladly broken their arms by now with the help of her fellow Teammates too. Cardin's bullying was going beyond her expectations, which were saying a lot since they were at the bottom for someone like him to begin with. She just needed another few moments to finally have a moment of revelation, a plan being organized within her own mind. "I have an idea!"

While said idea was being explained to the rest of ten RBPN, Jaune was struggling to stand before the bully himself. Every time he smacked him down he refused to lose conscious. Every time Cardin threatened him, he scoffed and spat in his direction, his spit now being mixed with a little bit of blood from his bleeding lip. Yet he stood his ground, breathing weaker with each and every breath. Cardin was actually surprised by how long Jaune was maintaining himself, his own knuckles actually starting to irritate him with all the beatings.

That's why it would be all the more satisfying once Jaune begged on his knees for forgiveness.

"Now, I'm going to ask you one more time Jaune, and for your sake, your answer better be "Yes sir"." Cardin warned, squeezing Jaune in his grip. "Do. It."

"...'t... sh..." Jaune muttered quietly. Whatever he said would determine if he survived the next few minutes or not. Cardin only grumbled at this as he shook Jaune awake some more.

"What was that?" Like before, Jaune squeezed his hands around the one Cardin was gripping him with, albeit weaker than before in all regards.

"I said... I don't care!" Jaune shot back. "I don't care what you do to me, how long you plan on beating on me, I don't care for any of that. I am not going to end up as Trash like you!"

Silence. Sometimes it was a blessing in disguise, for others it was a result of the unexpected. For the five Hunters present, the four who became shocked at the words spoken, their silence was the only thing heard as they processed Jaune's exact words. Only now would Jaune see Cardin's _bad_ side, the veins on his forehead tightening as his teeth clenched as tightly as his grip on Jaune.

"Well then, Jauney boy," Cardin said, pulling back his fist tightly, "let me show you what happens to Trash that plays on the curb!" And with a sudden roar, he launched his fist directly at Jaune's face, the latter preparing himself for all things to come.

Yet, what did come wasn't the painful reaction of Cardin's fist colliding to Jaune's skull. In fact, strangely enough, there wasn't any pain to come at all. Instead, for the first time since his beating started, he actually felt...okay. He actually started feeling less pain as a sudden light engulfed the rest of his entire body, the flash blinding the several nearby bullies and Cardin himself, as well as those of team RBPN who were about to pull off their plan before the unexpected happened. It only brought warmth to him, blindness to those staring directly at it, and a strange high-pitched ringing sound that followed.

The only thing Jaune felt after was his back falling to the ground as the light diminished once more. Compared to the numerous times he was too weak to get up on his own, he found his strength returning to him as all pain faded into nothingness. Looking at his own two hands, the weak and battered things that soaked up the first half of his beatings trying to defend himself, the bruises slowly disappeared to be replace by a comforting warmth. All pain had faded by the time the last of the blueness was over, all injuries present disappearing with the blinding light. The only thing that remained was his cold, as well as his future beatings that were sure to come.

"Agh!" Cardin yelled in pain, rubbing his sore hand. Jaune was about to enter a brand new world of pain that Cardin had decided to put off till now. Why was that? Because aside from every reason Cardin had till now, colliding his fist onto Jaune's face brought absolute pain to his whole knuckle, feeling like he just punched a wall made of bricks. It wasn't enough that it hurt his hand in the process, he didn't want to think about what it would've felt like if he didn't have his own aura protecting what little it could of Cardin's hand. At least unlike Jaune, he was going to enjoy the next bout of pain he was about to bring, kicking the fellow Hunter en back as he tried to get up. That didn't stop him from rising to his knees, looking on as he saw Cardin and the rest of his cronies in glaring down at him. "Let's see how much of a man you really are now, Jaune." His threat came all too at the sudden sound that followed.

"Grrrrrrrrr!" All Grimm sounded similar. Some had a higher pitched, others had a reverberating echo to their tone. This was one they had yet to hear before. This was a Grimm that towered at least twice in height compared to the rest of them, that took the form of a giant wolf that slowly crept closer to the group of terrified students.

Back with the previous team, they all watched with expectancy and mild curiosity as Ruby worked her magic, Blake staying close by to keep comfort and calm as Ruby concentrated.

"Can you really control her all the way from here?" Blake asked. The last thing they needed was for Ruby to lose control and have a monstrous Grimm devouring several students.

"Mmhh...ngh..." Ruby moaned a little, pushing her hand against her head as she did. "Sort of. I can't like control her step-by-step or anything like that, but I can direct her in what I want to do and everything. Like this!" Blake looked back at the wolf the minute she said that. No sooner had Ruby finished talking, the wolf suddenly growled as it swiped it's paw at Dove, sending the teammate flying through the sky as his arms flailed, landing with a resounding thud and following groan upon immediately hitting the ground. "She still has full control of herself, but I can send her orders for what I want her to do with my will if I focus hard enough. Long as I keep sending her impulses like this, it'll be fine... but it gives me a growing headache the longer I do it like this."

"Don't worry, just stick to the plan and it should be over soon." Blake assured, trying to ease her friend's pain.

The plan continued to pull off as Pyrrha instructed and prayed would continue to go off. One by one, Cardin's teammates were either sent flailing several yards away from him, or sent screaming as they ran for their lives past the hidden girls, completely unaware of their presence. After Dove's rent flight, the next to get batted away was Sky, the teammate actually trying to strike at the wolf from behind only to have Wolfie swiftly dodge and return the blow with her massive furry tail. Just because it was mostly fluff didn't mean it wasn't weak in it's own right. The third to finally be blown from the battle was Russel himself, Cardin's righthand man. Whereas the other two were batted away, Russel lost all bravery and courage as he ran away screaming after barely dodging the next two attacks from the terrifying Wolf, the other two beaten Hunters following behind him as they screamed for their lives.

That only left the most troublesome of bullies behind, Cardin, who fell to his back after backing away slowly in fear. He didn't even have to get back to his feet as Wolfie pinned her paw down on top of his legs, just gentle enough to keep from breaking, but more than needed to make it painful and horrifying for the fear-strickened Hunter who couldn't even scream. Al he could do was stare directly into the massive red eyes of the hideous creature, seeing a small bit of his reflection screaming back at him as Wolfie gnashed her teeth.

"Ok, you're doing good Ruby." Pyrrha said with a smile, Nora enjoying the show right next to her. "Now just do something to make Cardin terrified and then send Wolfie into the woods so you can get her after! ...Ruby?" Some form of worry crept in the back of her mind as Wolfie continued it's menacing growl, to showing any signs of hesitation as it brought itself closer to Cardin's person.

"Ngh...I... I can't!" Ruby yelped, worries growing from each of student's minds.

"What do you mean you can't?" Nora fretted, looking back between her and Wolfie every other second. "Just call her off or something!"

"I'm trying to but I can't!" Ruby shook her head as her focus waned. "Something's distracting her, she won't listen to me!"

"What?!" Blake's eyes widened with fear as the group turned back to the giant wolf.

It wasn't any of their faults that they didn't know about it. Honestly, they thought the entire reason Cardin was beating up Jaune was just Cardin being Cardin. They didn't have a single ounce of the truth at hand, nor were they aware of the fact that Cardin had any sap sprawled across his chest. In any other situation, Wolfie would've listened to her master's orders without a second thought. She was loyal, dependable, and caring for her love pup. But the scent of the tree sap were messing with her emotions, as well as any orders that followed her.

On top of that, this was person was scum. This was the very scum that harmed her precious pup the other day and brought turmoil and misery to her being. Even with her sickened state, Ruby still managed to take full control of her will and held Wolfie at bay all throughout her sparring exam with Cardin, the one who inflicted a bruise or two upon her precious darling. She didn't lose a single second of concentration as she did, adding to the amount of exertion her already-sickened body was going through. By the time she got back to her own dorm yesterday with the help of her friends, only then did she lose control of her will when she entered and locked the bathroom, immediately heaving as she threw up into the toilet.

Of course, she was unaware. She didn't know the concept of these sparring exams, what reasons they had to exist if it was only meant to hurt one another. The only thing she cared about was that her pup suffered because of this person, the very one now fearful of her. This scum would prove to be a useful example of people who cross her pup, injure her pup, torment her pup. It was going to be more than enough to rip the entrails from this student's gullet. She decided not to even eat them, not wanting just tasteless flesh in her own stomach. But she would relish every moment of it in turn.

 ** _*Whack!*_**

"Auuuuu!" The wolf yelped in pain as Jaune bashed it's head away. Wolfie shook her head before growling at the other creature standing before her, Jaune standing at the ready with his sword and shield hand in hand. It was the only opportunity Cardin had to back away slowly, still too paralyzed with fear to stand yet. "Grrrrr!"

"Get away from him!" Jaune yelled back. Yeah, he was terrified, and a part of him really wanted to leave Cardin as much as the rest of his friends had. But his dream was to be a Hunter, a True Hunter. And no matter how scared he was, how likely he was to die, he wasn't ready to back down.

The very same sight brought unbelievable worry and fear to Pyrrha. her so-called plan to help Jaune was officially going to result in his death.

"Jaune..." She muttered to herself, quickly looking back to Ruby in worry. "Ruby, do something, he's going to get himself killed!"

"Mmh...Hang on, it's coming back..." Ruby mumbled to the others as she rubbed her head. Thankfully with the distracting scent no longer keeping Wolfie's attention, all Ruby needed was for another minute to regain full control of Wolfie's entire being.

A minute they possibly wouldn't have at this rate.

It wasn't too surprising that Jaune was getting beaten about by the massive wolf, it's massive size giving her a great advantage. Even with every blow he blocked, it was still more than enough to push Jaune several yards away, at least several times off his feet. But not one of those blows were directly towards him. Each and every one of those strikes were blocked successfully with Jaune's mighty shield. Sure, it still numbed his arm more and more blocking each decisive blow, each capable of possibly taking half the torso off of any regular person, but with his shield combined with his aura, he stood steadfast and at the ready of this fearsome creature.

And for every blow that Jaune was dealt, he delivered another several strikes in turn. None of them had yet to scrape the beast itself, only getting as close to cutting off a few tuffs of fur every couple of strikes, but the longer the fight last, the more Jaune adapted to the fight, just like he remembered to his lessons. He watched and studied every single strike the creature made, it's maneuvers whenever it dodged and struck Jaune, and every way it narrowed in on Jaune with each passing blow. Even his cold wasn't enough to distract him from the harrowing fighting that took place, no matter how annoying it became to deal with while fighting the beast.

Then it happened.

After exchanging blows back and forth, or at least attempted blows from Jaune's part, did he finally manage to strike the creature. It wasn't anything to brag about, anything lethal that would've killed the creature, just enough to make his own mark against the beast. Waiting with anticipation for the creature's next swipe, Jaune managed to slide right under the creature's enormous leg, bringing his blade along with him and striking across the base of the creature's paw, leaving a large gash in it's place.

"Auuugh!" Wolfie cried out in pain. It wasn't much of a strike, only covering above half the size under Wolfie's paw, but it was enough to make the wolf limp. It wasn't able to put it's full weight on the paw without wincing from the pain it brought, a small bit of black ooze dripping just slightly from it's bleeding paw. It wasn't anywhere near enough to distract it from the rage it had building up, growling more fiercely with built up anger growing in itself. "Grrrrrr!"

"Ruby, any day now!" Pyrrha peeped. She's seen that look numerous times in the Grimm she's fought in the past. Whenever a Grimm was injured enough, when it was aware of it's losing state, it would start getting aggressive. From here on out, it would do nothing else until it's prey or attacker lay dying at their feet, feasting on the dead opponent with satisfaction and victorious.

"Just a little longer..." Her frustrations were way beyond Pyrrha's. Dealing with a plan that's already going awry along with a headache that continued to progress was the worst combination of things to deal with. Mix that in with her own worries for Wolfie and doing everything she could do to influence Wolfie into not killing Jaune outright was the biggest literal pain she ever had to deal with since coming to Beacon.

Back at the fight, Jaune's moment of victory was cut short by the loss of his weapon. Trying to follow along with the same plan he had before, he was caught off guard completely as immediately following another dodge under one of it's paws, Wolfie added to the attack by swiping her tail across Jaune. With his own armor and aura protecting him, it did little more than push him several yards away, leaving him completely fine and without consequence. At least that's what he thought until he realized he was one sword short, finding the blade having flung out of his hands and several feet behind Wolfie as it embedded in the ground.

Now there was only him with his shield, and an angry and limping Wolfie who wanted to complete it's previous task of devouring the still terrified Cardin who was off to the side. If there was a time for every hero to make a name for himself, this was going to be Jaune's. Shouting himself with his own rage, ready to risk everything to get his sword back, Jaune did the unthinkable and charged straight for the beast, the Grimm charging headlong at Jaune in turn as the two prepared to exchange a final blow to one another.

Jaune's plan was risk versus reward, and one he desperately needed. With his amount of skill and what tools he had left on hand, the only way he was going to kill this Grimm was with his sword. As the beast charged Jaune, maw first, that's when Jaune prepared to strike back. With a mighty yell, he raised his shield slowly, preparing to bash the beast's jaw away from the himself, and heave the beast away all at the same time. There was only one disadvantage Jaune had compared to the wolf.

He was still learning to fight. If he had adjusted his position or shield by a mere degree, his plan would've gone off perfectly without a hitch. With how it was now, there was enough open space between Jaune's exposed arm and the shield for Wolfie to tear at it, ready to rip Jaune's limb from his body along with the rest of him later in the fight if needed. It would take Jaune an official miracle now to realize his error and correct it within the split second that the two were about to exchange blows.

And said blessing came in the form of Pyrrha Nikos. She knew his fault and the error in strategy, and took it upon herself to correct it as she raised her hand. Gathering her own focus like Ruby was trying to muster, her semblance kicked in unknowingly to Jaune or the mighty beast, his shield glowing a black aura around it as she adjusted it's scale perfectly to match Jaune's strategy. That one little hitch, the boost he needed to make his plan work, was all it took to follow through. Just as Jaune had planned, the beast bashed it's face into the side of Jaune's shield as he slammed it. Thanks to the injured paw the wolf was limping from, it was off balance and off scale, unable to support itself against the ground as the rest of Jaune's plan came to fruition. With a mighty yell, taking advantage of the beast's uneven weight, Jaune pushed the beast ahead of itself as it tripped, throwing the beast several feet to the side as it crashed to the ground, long enough for Jaune to gather his weapon once more before the beast rose to it's injured feet.

With the sight of Jaune regaining his weapon, Pyrrha could finally smile as she lead the rest to him. He truly was learning what it meant to be a True Hunter, something he wouldn't need to do if Ruby would just hurry up. "How much longer?" She asked, still worried for her fellow friend.

"Mmmh!" Ruby grumbled to herself in annoyance. "Ok that's it. Plan B."

"Plan-" Blake didn't have any time to ask what she meant by it. Within a few seconds, with Ruby's semblance kicking in, the remanning members of Team RPBN found Ruby suddenly dashing in front of Jaune, pulling her scythe out at the ready, much to Jaune's relief.

"Wha-Ruby?" He practically yelped, her sudden appearance almost making him jump. "What are you doing here?"

"Hey Jaune," Ruby smiled back with a wave, "just thought you could use some help."

In truth, this was nowhere near what she was planning. As she expected, the giant wolf Grimm finally snapped back to it's senses at the sight of her beloved child. Up till now, it was completely unaware of how savage and erratic it's been acting, unaware that the multiple senses it was feeling were from Ruby trying to exert her own will again. Not even the sight of Cardin's sap-covered chest could distract her away from her pupling, finally realizing the orders Ruby was secretly sending to her at long last.

With a pretend, menacing, growl, the Wolf hissed once more as it scampered into the forest, Ruby smiling to herself as she regained control after all this time.

"It's getting away! I'll get it!' Jaune didn't get a second to open his mouth as Ruby sprinted off, chasing after the wolf as she seemed intent on finishing it. In truth, like planned previously before everything got messed up, she was just going far enough into the forest until they were both out of sight, merging Wolfie into her shadow once they were in the dark. Luckily Wolfie's injury was only minor, something that would heal within a few hours while she relaxed in Ruby's shadow.

"Ruby wait-!" Jaune's desire to chase after her in the hopes of helping were cut down by the next interruption.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha caught his attention, surprised she was talking to him after several days ago. "We heard about the Grimm! Are you guys ok?"

Normally, Jaune would be more than relieved to see Pyrrha and the several other students who definitely could've taken on the giant wolf Grimm by working together. Yet, as happy as the reunion was, there was one other detail he had to deal with first, the only thing that mattered to him since he knew Pyrrha's worry for him would only be temporary. He brushed himself past the girls as he walked over to the dumbfounded Cardin, helping him up to his feet as the girls whispered from behind him.

"Shouldn't we tell him you at least helped him?" Blake whispered over.

"Yeah, he doesn't need to know about the Grimm obviously, just your help." Nora added. This only earned a few chuckles from the expert herself.

"Well, we could do that," and the look of determination on Jaune's face told her otherwise, "or we could keep this as our little secret." This was a moment Jaune needed for himself. After everything he's been through, everything he's done, he's deserved this one little moment of encouragement.

"Holy crap Jaune..." Cardin mumbled as Jaune helped him up. The grip on his hands made Cardin wince as it tightened a little, Jaune moving his head closer to Cardin as he glared into his eyes.

"I don't care what you do to me anymore, but leave my friends alone from now on! Got it?" His threat was made clear. Cardin could only gulp silently as he nodded, Jaune squeezing his hand one more time before walking away again.

At this point, Pyrrha was happy. For the first time in the last several days, she was actually happy about Jaune.

She was wrong about him.

...

...

"Achoo!" Jaune sneezed once more as he sat on the ledge of the school's rooftop.

It was funny really. To think several days ago, all his problems started right at this exact spot on the rooftops, right after Oobleck's history class no less. He thought he would be too terrified to come here, to the one spot where all his troubles began, where his entire reason for being here was on the line, how everything he wanted in life was put to the test at this very roof. He didn't care about Cardin anymore, and he definitely didn't fear the guy from this point forward. In fact, he almost seemed a little scared of Jaune at times, the hours leading up to this moment seeming like a dream.

Naturally, there were many surprised and confused faces as the remaining students of Forever Fall, along with the teacher, came rushing to the scene a few minutes after, the screams of terrified students yelling about a wolf Grimm in the woods putting everybody on edge. One of the very first to come to the scene were the members of Team WYJR, Yang feeling more than excited to find a Grimm to pummel down, only to become disappointed at the lack of said Grimm when arriving to the scene.

Following a brief explanation to what happened in the clearing, minus-ing anything related to the bullying, the teacher had to call the remainder of the field trip off. While some students were disappointed here and there, not all of them finished with their sample collecting, the option between staying in a Grimm-infested forest where more Grimm were likely to be drawn to the gathering of students quickly shut all opposition. There was only relief when Glynda told them they wouldn't be marked down for being unable to finish any sample collecting since the field trip was cut short by at least an hour's worth of time.

For the rest of the time, Jaune was just silent. He only ever replied to someone from his team if they asked him about what happened, and, unsurprisingly, there were a few questionable looks from them at first when he told them how he heroically fought off a Grimm. It wouldn't have been the first time he exaggerated a story after all. It was only with the assistance and confirmation of Ruby and her team that they started believing him, congratulating him for his fine work while he didn't actually kill the Grimm that mysteriously vanished later.

So here he was. Here he was questioning everything that happened, and everything it meant about being a Hunter, with nothing more than his thoughts, and his loneliness.

At least until someone spoke at this very moment with a revelation that shocked him.

"You never poisoned Ruby, did you?" Pyrrha spoke as she approached, dressed in her school uniform like he was.

"P-Pyyrha?!" Jaune nearly yelped. It's rather fortunate he was exhausted from the days events, otherwise he would've jumped from surprise and possibly accidentally slip off the edge of he building. He only had enough energy to muster a small smiles she sat next to him, both admiring the view from up here. "P-Poi-Poison? W-What are you talking abo-"

"Jaune." She shot him an unsurprised look and a grin. He knew there was no point in hiding it.

"How'd you find out?"

"Hmhm, your mannerism at the spar yesterday kind of threw you off. I don't know what you did, but I do know you were responsible for what happened to Ruby." Instead of a look of anger or disgusted, she gave him a small smile full of pride. "At least I thought you did at first until I saw you stand up to Cardin back in the forest. Before you left after we found you, I mean." She quickly added before he could question it. "The person I saw there, standing up to Cardin, that's the Jaune I remember from the first day of school."

"Huff, that Jaune never left." He muttered back, staring off into the distance as he remembered the events in the library.

 _Still, as helpful as that was he could only frown. No amount of comfort would prepare him for what he had to do next. "Yeah, well... I don't know..." He mumbled again._

 _"Just sleep on it tonight and apologize by morning. Consider it a Captain-to-a-Captain-to-a-Teammate's order." She said with a small salute. Jaune was aware of her eyeballing the drinkings in his hand, becoming harder and harder for what he had to do soon. As for Ruby herself, she slowly rubbed her fingers with anticipation, finding it harder and harder to resist asking for the great-smelling drinks. Maybe it would still count as polite if she hinted to them? "So... about those drinks there..."_

 _"Huh? Oh, yeah, that..." He paused looking into the mug in his right hand, seeing his reflection staring back at him. He always wanted to be a hunter, and went through great lengths to get here. There was no way he could screw that up now. "Yeah..." There was no going back now. He handed her the mug in his right. "Here you go, hope you like it." With a simple swipe, his fate was sealed_.

"I just couldn't do it." He confirmed. "I've been through so much to get here, did everything I could to be accepted to Beacon. And it doesn't matter what I did, up until then, I was ready to do it!"

"Buuut..." She playfully trailed off, knowing there was more to his story. He paused for a moment to sigh, followed by a sneeze he covered up, then continued.

"But... I just couldn't. I want to be a True Hunter like my father, like my whole family line. Like Ruby, like you, like everyone around here... well... except Cardin obviously." Pyrrha chuckled quietly at this. "I just couldn't throw that away by sabotaging anyone, especially someone who didn't deserve it like Ruby."

"Then why didn't you say anything?" She knew he was worried about the fight a few days ago, that he was nervous about how Pyrrha would react to him from that point forward after calling her a bother, but if this was the truth, and she knew it was, then he shouldn't have worried about saying as much.

"Honestly? Because I thought I did poison her any...an...Achoo-!" He sneezed again, sniffling a little as he wiped his nose. "Anyway. I was surprised more than any that she was sick the next day, I thought the drink I gave her made her sick or something. I started worrying Cardin laced both of them like he expected this or just wanted to make me suffer too." To his surprise, Pyrrha only laughed at this. There had to be more than just the irony of it, so whatever she was laughing at had to be something good.

"Well, you can rest easy with that, you're completely in the clear as far as being the one responsible goes."

"Huh?" He didn't poison her? Oh what a dear god sweet relief this was! "Then do you know who did?"

"She did." Pyrrha's announcement brought even more shock and confusion at that.

"Huh?!"

"Heh, not intentionally of course." She added, looking up at the stars. "Apparently Ruby and Nora got it into their heads the day before the match to try several dozen combinations of making chocolate Chip pancakes, half their recipes involving raw cookie dough in the process. I think you can tell how that ended up." Now to her own surprise, instead of the huge look of a burden being lifted from his shoulders the look of someone overjoyed to hear of their innocence, he only looked more disappointed to himself, looking away as he did.

"It still doesn't change things, Pyrrha. I was ready to do it up until then, I wanted to stay at Beacon more than anything. It was just my cowardice that kept me from going through with it. And my stupidity to force myself into drinking the other waa...waaa...aaaachoo!... The other one." The results of drinking the laced drink only now revealed themselves to Pyrrha and the outcome of it.

Jaune's cold.

"Then I'm glad." What the heck? Was she just teasing him or something? Did she misinterpret or not understand a single thing he just said? She must've, because looking back at her she was just casually swinging her legs over the edge, admiring the ground's beauty with it's fireflies and blooming flowers in the bushes. "That's the very same Jaune I respected before, the one I met when I first came here. Maybe it's good to be scared sometimes from doing something, because when you feel overconfident in yourself, in everything that you can do, that's when you truly change for the worse." And like the shattered moon above, she smiled brightly at him. "And I hope you never change from being the coward we all know right now Jaune. That's the one I became friends with."

"Pyrrha..." He didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve this encouragement. It didn't matter to him that he chickened out of the poisoning plan, his resolve to go through with it. He didn't want this sort of encouragement for being someone who just pulled out at the last minute. He was ready to go through with it, he wanted to go through with it!

But he just couldn't. It was just like Pyrrha said, he had no confidence in himself nor his attempts at staying at Beacon Academy. He was just a coward, and an idiot at times... But maybe Pyrrha was right? Perhaps that was a good things at time. Perhaps, if only a single step in the right direction, it was on the path to being a True Hunter like he always wanted. Now all he needed was to take the next step.

Shaking the cloud from his mind, he mustered up what little courage he could, standing away from the ledge as he looked to Pyrrha pleadingly.

"Look, Pyrrha, I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry for the fight we had awhile ago, and I'm sorry for being such a screw up all the time. So... if you're still up for it... do you think maybe that... that you could still train me?"

This. This was him. This was the real Jaune Arc. The same one Pyrrha smiled to on a daily basis, the one she got to know as time went on.

The very one she walked over to, and the same one ready to express her feelings for.

 _*THUD!*_

"Ow!" He yelped, rubbing his head. "Ok, I deserved that..." Of course, he would've preferred knowing what was coming to him instead of Pyrrha instantly throwing him to the ground, but anything that happened to him at this point was only too fair.

At least to him.

"Your stance needs some work. You need to be wider and lower to the ground." The brief silence that filled the air turned to one of joy as Pyrrha smirked to him, both of them chuckling a little as she helped Jaune back to his feet. From here, the next several weeks to months would consist of this, almost every day after school. She would train Jaune, and he would learn from her. "Let's try that again."

In an academy full of True Hunters, there was no better way to bond.

...

...

...

 _ **A/N: Chances are I know EXACTLY what you're all gonna say- "Booooo, noooo, you just wrote that because of all the complaints", to which I say, for shame people, for shame X) if I wanted Jaune to be the crooked villain/hero here, you would know it. I 100% entirely intended this path of writing.**_

 _ **Now with that said, I'm in the middle of a lockdown so I need to keep writing short. up next we have our third short interlude and last one for volume 1, with a much wanted rematch between Ruby and Cardin!**_

 _ **As always leave a like, fav, follow, and review and hope to see you soon!**_


	41. Interlude 3: Rematch! Ruby vs Cardin

**_A/N: About a good near 7.4k Pre-A/N's, which is saying a lot since i only expected a good 5k or so._**

 ** _*Wakes up this morning*_**

 ** _Ah, what a pleasant day! The sun is shining, the snow is pretty, my cricking neck is still killing me whenever I wake up, I always enjoy being alive! Now to see my wonderful reviews for the last chapter that will no doubt brighten my day ^^!... :)... :I... :(... :*(...X(... X*(..._**

 ** _*one psychiatric evaluation after attempting to jump in the middle of a road*_**

 ** _Eh hem...ehhhhhhh_**

 ** _Lol, honestly, I don't mind it. I get it, I sometimes force things here and there, but you know what? It's just part of the story. There's a lot of things I forced here and there in reality- in fact, if you read the first skit out of my recently-updated Rwby Chibi fic, you might die laughing from how accurate it is with me poking fun at my stories XP._** ** _I don't mind the comments, would least prefer not over 80% of them wrote the same thing, but whatever XP_**

 ** _Now let's enjoy some rematch between Ruby and Cardin ^^!_**

 ** _..._**

 ** _..._**

 ** _..._**

 ** _~This will be the day we waited for~_**

 _Cinder and salem are seen standing on a balcony on the side of the latter's home looking out in the distance to where Vale would be. As they look up to a Nevermore flying overhead, the camera pans up as well, showing an orange sky that slowly turns blue._

 ** _~This will be the day we open up the door~_**

 _Returning back down from its view of the sky, we see Ruby opening the door to Beacon's main hall, Wolfie peaking out behind her, Blake standing next to her, oblivious to the Grimm's presence._

 ** _~I don't wanna hear your absolution~_**

 _The Camera 'flies' through the hallways until it settles on Ozpin going through illegible notes on his scroll next to a photo of young miss Fall._

 ** _~Hope your ready for a revolution~_**

 _Outside his window, WYJR can be seen standing together. As the screen is overtaken by a storm of white petals, Weiss pushes Jaune a bit away._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of new solutions~_**

 _One of the petals remain before a black background and is revealed to be Ruby as she pulls out [insert weapon name] and starts twirling her Scythe around, leaving a burning crimson Halo above herself._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of blood evolution~_**

 _The red halo turns into Wolfie's red Iris as the camera zooms out revealing the pool of blood beneath the Grimm. before he dissolves into a shadow and to the side._

 ** _~In time your heart will open minds~_**

 _The shadow flows beneath Ruby cloak who is standing with her team, a conflicted expression on her face. Soon though it is replaced with a look of determination as the Camera pans once more._

 ** _~A Story will be told~_**

 _When the camera settles on Ruby's viewpoint we see Amber kneeling before Cinder, before the camera zooms back and her surroundings turn into the vault beneath Beacon._

 ** _~And Victory is in a Simple Soul~_**

 _We see a final shot of a young Ruby hugging her family, which reveals itself to be an old picture in Salem's Hand who is enjoying tea served by Neo._

"For our final sparring exam, we shall have a makeup exam between Cardin Winchester and Ruby Fall." The stage was set up much like it was before all these events had started.

Like previously, the crowd had it's mix of applause and cheer as Cardin made his way to the stage. He could no longer bully Jaune around, not for a lack of trying. He stood his ground after long last and stood up to Cardin, getting thoroughly beaten down in the process. That wasn't the part that kept him from bullying Jaune any longer. The part that did make him stop bullying him was the fact he owed him. After everything Cardin had done to him, he still saved him from the menacing Wolf Grimm that Ruby unleashed, unaware of the plan from Pyrrha to just scare Cardin and his goons away from Jaune. The only setback they had was being unaware of the splattered tree sap from the Forever Fall trees which started the fight earlier.

Considering Jaune can now be seen standing amongst his friends and teammates, it was easy to tell the outcome of what transpired after. Jaune stood his ground against the giant Grimm, fighting it off long enough with what strength and courage he could summon, long enough until Ruby presented herself between the two combatants. It was after finally seeing her pup again did Wolfie regain her senses, snapping out of her moment of rage and falling back into the woods just as Ruby had ordered, catching up to her within a minute to bring her back into her own shadow.

That was the day Jaune's conviction brightened for the first time. He decided to be a True Hunter, much like his father and grandfather before him. He didn't care anymore about what Cardin did to him, he no longer saw himself as the strong Hunters he saw his teammates and friends to be. But he did see himself as someone trying, someone who would work constantly to regain that sense of honor, determined to change everything with his own two hands and find a way to make his family proud of him.

Besides, much to his surprise, what later riddled him with guilt ended up being a ironic twist of fate. Apparently, at the start of the bullying, Cardin's first orders were to give Ruby a drink laced with some strange poison, which later turned out to be nothing more than a simple cold at most. All the fears and all the pleas rattling in Jaune's head telling him to listen to the bully were silent to the Hunter himself. Jaune lacked the much-needed courage to go through with his plans, switching the drinks at the last second with his own. Which is why fate took a rather ironic turn the following day when, despite not giving her the laced drink, Ruby ended up sick to the point of vomiting, figuring the drink must've made her sick regardless of being clean compared to his own.

With enough shock to make his jaw drop, only later the following night, after the field trip, did Pyrrha realize her sickness were from her own clumsy ideals, trying to make dozens of different chocolate chip pancakes using different recipes with Nora, at least half of those plans involving raw cookie dough.

So now here he was among the people he could call friends one day. He was still scared constantly, worried that they would find out one day about what he did. Even though Pyrrha promised to keep his secret safe, seeing how he truly didn't do anything wrong, he decided he would tell them the truth, once he could muster the courage to go through with it. And Pyrrha promised to be right by his side when he did.

Now all that was left was for the makeup exam to get underway, Ruby finally making her appearance onstage as the monitors above them displayed their aura levels via bars.

This match was more important to the members of Team RBPN than meets the eye. Aside from getting back at the person who humiliated Ruby several days ago, still unaware of his poisoning attempt, they needed to show the school just how strong Ruby truly was. After the disbanded exam, thanks to Ruby throwing up in the midst of the fight, not a student went by her that didn't poke fun of her, calling her mean names and insults to remind her of how she disgustingly threw up in the middle of the match. Not even Jaune had to deal with that ridicule after his failed exam with Cardin, which was saying a lot coming from him. She needed this not just to clear her own name, but to keep the many prying eyes from picking her out of a crowd, her mission still being at stake here.

"Do you think she can take him?" Weiss asked around. Now that she thought of it, aside from Grimm, she had yet to see Ruby in a fight with another person. She was capable of taking down a Nevermore and a Deathstalker in a single strike, thanks to the combined effort of the eight students, but here things were different. She obviously couldn't go in at full power, unless her actual desire was to incinerate Cardin where he stood.

"Ruby will be alright." Blake said smiling back. "Back when we were kids, we would occasionally pretend to be hunters and fight each other with plastic tubes. She learned a few tricks here and there about fighting."

"Yeah but that doesn't really help in this case." Ren remarked. "She's not gonna get tapped by some paper-mache or styrofoam sword. No matter how strong she is, any of those strikes from Cardin's mace is going to leave a mark."

"Nah, she'll be fine." Yang said with a casual smile, leaning her hands behind her head as she watched. "She's a tough girl, I'm sure she can handle it."

"By the way, where's Nora?"

"Oh, she didn't get to bed till late last night. She couldn't sleep." Pyrrha replied. "Since we didn't have many classes to worry about today, she decided to sleep in."

"Is she alright?" It was easy to see the care Ren had for her, whether or not he showed the same level of semi-craziness Nora had.

"Yeah she's fine. She's not sick or anything if that's what you're worried about." Blake assured as she smiled.

"I assume both participants are ready this time?" Glynda asked turning to both students, preferring to keep a repeat of last time from happening. Like usual, Cardin threw her the common smug grin he always gave when preparing for a fight.

"Tch, you might wanna get another bucket just in case, Ms. Goodwitch." He teased, his insults doing nothing to break the always-happy demeanor from the hooded Ruby, even after half the audience burst into irritating laughter. He wasn't the least bit concerned about how this fight went. Something told him his ace in the hold would work to his advantage.

"I'm ready when you are." She shot back, turning back to Ms. Goodwitch with a look of curiosity. "So just to double check, what are the ways to win?"

"Hmm?" Already she could see the little gears in this girl's head turning. What exactly was she planning? "Once someone's aura drops to the red zone, or if someone concedes."

"You mean surrender, right?"

"Yes miss Fall, surrender. And, as it should go without saying, if you continue to fight someone after they go into the red zone, you will be disqualified and penalized." Her steel gaze went from Ruby to the smug bully across from her. "That goes for the both of you, Mr. Winchester."

"Pffft, relax teach. I promise you the little lady will be alright." It would be a lie if she said he didn't annoy him from time to time either. A teacher could only stand by and listen though as students made their taunts back and forth, all while trying to determine if they were taking their warnings seriously.

"Very well then, if both students are ready, you may begin at any time." And like the previous time, she stepped back into the shadows as the match officially began.

 _*clank*_

With the sight of Ruby casually dropping her weapon to the side.

"What is she doing?" Blake asked slightly worried. A sense of unease was starting to fall upon the other students around her, all worrying the same thing.

"She isn't sick again, is she?" Weiss asked.

"Doubtful," Yang gestured to Ruby's expression, "look at her face. She dropped her weapon on purpose."

"But why? She didn't get a muscle cramp, did she?" Jaune could feel the goosebumps creeping along his skin, recollecting the numerous times a muscle cramp hit right in the middle of a spar or training.

"I think she might be trying to surprise us..." Blake grew a small grin as she observed Ruby closely.

She was ready for this.

"What the heck? Don't tell me you're gonna throw up again, I prefer to keep my shoes clean." Cardin joked loudly and intentionally, earning several large groups of laughter from the audience. His own chuckle slowly became silent as Ruby continued to stand there, with the same dumb smile on her face that annoyed Cardin.

"Nah, I just figured a big macho man like you would find it easier to fight a defenseless girl." Wow. All he could think of was wow. In one single sentence, Ruby returned his comment with her own, actually managing to silence most of the crowd who began to whisper to one another. He shifted his eyes back to the shadowy figures for a bit, noticing the stares and silence emanating around the room. Still, it wasn't enough to discourage him. If anything it irritated him how she was trying to call him out like this.

"Heh, you got pair for a small chick. I like that." He chuckled again.

"That's nice. Too bad I can't say the same thing."

Oh god.

"What did you just say?!" He growled, squeezing his mace tightly.

"What, did I speak too fast for you? I'll talk sloooowerrrrrrr." She teased.

She actually was. She was taunting and teasing him out in the open, on stage of the arena. Her jokes were actually getting several stifled chuckles from the audience, Yang and several other nearby friends chuckling to themselves at Ruby's comments. It was obvious what she was doing, and only more surprising at how effective it was being. The veins growing upon her forehead was a pretty good indicator of how far she was pushing him. And she was going to relish every second of it, just like he did two days ago.

"You stupid little-!" He grumbled as he charged headfirst, swinging his weapon right down upon her.

 _*woof*_

"Huh?" All he was met with was the swift moving sound of his mace hitting air, Ruby dodging to the side casually without so much as a wink.

"Miiised!" She taunted.

"Ngh!" He growled as he swept to the side, only for Ruby to duck under it and slide to to the side once more. "Hold still!"

"Why?" She asked, side-stepping another strike. "It's not like it'll improve your aiming if I stand in one spot."

"Shut up!" He growled. The next swing he took finally collided with something, which was an experience short lived as he realized all he hit was the ground where Ruby stood, creating a decently-sized dent in the tile-covered floor.

"Hey, you actually hit something that time!" Nothing she said went without a chuckle or two from the audience, more people joining in as the fight went on. As he grumbled back to her, he saw Russel running around the edge of the arena as he tried to get closer.

"Dude, what are you doing? Just hit her!" He was saying it like he was trying to do anything other than hit her!

"What do you think I'm doing you idiot!" He snapped back.

"Geez, talk about manners." Ruby commented. If she didn't know Hunters as the truly awful people they were, she would've been surprised at how he snapped at his fellow teammate. At the same time, it just gave her another idea for a joke. "Do I need to call your mommy and tell her how you've been misbehaving?"

"Shut up you little-!"

 ** _*WHAM!*_**

"Ack..." All at one, his vision doubled for a short while as his eyes crossed. In a similar manner he once inflicted upon Ruby, Ruby returned the same knee to his stomach twice as hard,, just enough for him to fee his own ribs for the first time even with all that armor and aura protecting him. Speaking of said aura, the audience watched with interest as a good fourth of his entire was brought down. At least, unlike Ruby, he managed to maintain some of his personal dignity as he wobbled back, never collapsing to his knees like those before him. To add to his pride, he attempted another swipe at her clumsily with his weapon singlehandedly, Ruby nimbly dodging backwards and keeping a good distance between the two.

"That was for me, and for Jaune." Ruby said just loud enough for the two of them to hear.

"Geh..." This was looking bad. Not including his pride that continued to dwindle, this girl was making him look like a fool. Every strike he attempted only ended with him hitting empty air, barely coming within an inch of her before she dodged out of the way with finesse. It was like she could predict his every move she was dodging so easily! He needed a new plan here and fast, one that would turn the tables around here and leave with him ending up on top, one that didn't include his last resort just yet. Then, he saw it.

There it was, the key to this whole situation. Not a foot away from him did he see a little something the lady herself dropped just moments beforehand.

Her Crescent Flame.

"...Heh..." Ruby was briefly curious at the grin Cardin was growing on his face, wondering what his plan was until he made a dive for the scythe, quickly standing before her as he raised the pole of the mighty weapon.

Now her friends were beginning to worry. With a weapon like Cardin's there was little he could actually do. Sure, he could whack it around and swing it about as much as he wanted to, but he could only use brute force behind it all. Ruby's weapon, on the other hand, was more unique. It was made, specialized just for her with her own two hands, as a symbol of her mother and the destructive force behind her powers. With the dust specially inlaid within her very cloak, only Ruby would be safe from the deadly flames it could create, only feeling any heat that the buildup of fire gave off.

If anyone else tried to use it, they were less likely to survive what was to come. Then again, if Cardin was as weak as Ruby predicted, nobody had anything to worry about.

"Hngh!" Cardin grunted as he attempted to pull the weapon from the floor. However, much to his surprise and the surprise of the audience, it barely budged from the floor. He could get the pole up just fine, and managed to move the end of it a couple inches off the ground, but the important part of the scythe, naturally where the blade and igniter was, wouldn't come past his ankles. "What the heck? Why's this thing so heavy?!"

"Because of the igniter on the blade." Ruby answered, Cardin looking at her with angry confusion as she walked on over. "The blade itself took me forever to get used to, it weighs a good fifty pounds alone. When I added the igniter though-" Cardin tried to cut her off. During the few moments she walked on over with his back turned to her, he took a chance. Waiting till her voice sounded close enough, he lunged his weapon right at her, just to be met with the same outcome as all the rest.

Nothing.

Actually, to his surprise, this time was more than nothing. He looked around all his sides, but any trace of Ruby suddenly vanished from his view. It was like she disappeared completely! That was when he noticed a brief shadow flash over his eyes, too little too late.

 ***BAM!***

"Agh!" Cardn cried out in pain again as two feet struck him directly in the face, sending him flying back several yards from where he stood.

He barely managed to maintain his footing as he was knocked back, rubbing his lightly aching nose from where Ruby's feet implanted on him. She managed to catch him completely off guard, never thinking about an attack from an arial strike. Before he could think of so much as hitting her earlier, Ruby's semblance kicked in, giving herself a small push as she leapt into the air just as he swung. From her vantage point, there was no way for him to counter, even if he did see where she went. With her body perfectly positioned in-between the view of the spotlight, any and all attempts to see her would've blinded him, leaving him open long enough for her to kick him square in the face with both her feet.

This was followed by several cheers from the audience, most notably from her friends and comrades. In honesty, she didn't care all too much about the praise she got, heartwarming or not. All she cared about was giving Cardin a taste of his own medicine, making him see how it felt to be bullied by someone stronger than him for once. This was one of the many valuable lessons her mother always taught her; be nice to those around her that show kindness and caring, and be ruthless to those who prefer to do the opposite. While she preferred toning down the ruthless end of it, she absolutely loved getting back at people who would impose their strength upon others, and Cardin was no exception.

With nothing more than a casual grin to him, she grabbed her scythe right next to her, kicking it up from the bladed end as it flipped up and over, catching the heavy bladed singlehandedly in her right. "It weights about 90 pounds with the igniter." She finished.

Cardin returned with the same grumble of irritation and annoyance like he always did. This was looking bad for him on all levels. She was humiliating him, taunting him in open public, pushing him all over the place, and lowering his aura with every strike. By now his aura had dropped a little under halfway, still feeling the bruise on his cheek from where Ruby kicked it. He needed to think of a way to get back at her and reclaim his pride both at the same time! But how?

"You ready to end this?" Ruby's sudden question caught him completely off guard.

"Huh?" With the way things were going, her confidence that she could end it all was becoming his biggest fear. "End it?"

"If you insist."

There was nothing left he could do. Like her friends have seen numerous times, Ruby's scythe glowed with the enchanted red dust dancing across the edge of the blade as the igniter came to life. This was a sight many of the students had heard about, "The girl who dances with fire", as some of them came to know her. It wasn't really that surprising either as Ruby began, twirling her blade before her as the blade slowly ignited little by little. With each passing second, it was becoming increasingly harder to tell if Ruby was twirling the blade faster, or if the flames were sprouting with increased speed, because as she started twirling the scythe around her, she started to become in a small dome of fire, eventually becoming large enough to encase her entire body.

All at once, any hopes and chances Cardin had of winning drastically dropped to zero. There was no way around this, not any that he knew anyway. As the flames continue to grow, his minuscule chances of victory shortened, becoming more than impossible with each passing step! She could level a valley if she needed to, her friends had seen her work her scythe before on Initiation Day. It was those few moments that determined who would be on each team, and who would be leading them. And as much as she despised Hunters like Cardin, she knew he still wasn't worth it, not yet anyway.

When she felt the flames had grown large enough, she launched her attack. In a gigantic burst to the air, Cardin shielded his eyes as the flames swept by him, the flames shooting out a little in each direction as Ruby launched herself, just high enough to drag a small ball of fire along with her scythe. By the time Cardin could so much as see again, it was already too late. With one simple strike to the ground, several feet away from him, Ruby attacked, her scythe exploding the ground before her and launching Cardin off his feet, blasting him along with a few flames that past by him in a glorious display of power.

He didn't have any time to react to this, much less anything that was to follow. After just realizing he landed on his back did he already see Ruby's scythe directly in front of her head, the Huntress looking down at him with the same smug grin he once gave her days before, only this time they were on opposite ends of one another. He didn't need to even look at the monitors above the arena to know how much aura he had left. The sight of Ms. Goodwitch walking on stage was enough of a giveaway.

"Cardin, your aura has fallen into the red zone." She needlessly revealed, looking to the victor of this little bout. "While I still debate the excessive force, miss Fall, it looks like you won the fight today."

And just like that, there was an uproar of applause as the audience clapped in unison, her friends more audible as they cheered for her. Ruby couldn't help the smug look growing on her face, chuckling to herself as she stashed her weapon away. To think the very people who were making fun of her up to this point, the people that berated and insulted her just for her illness, were now applauding her and the grand spectacle she displayed before them. They were practically shouting in celebration with each passing second, congratulating her on a job well-done. It was a bit nice hearing it from some of the people, mostly those who Cardin bullied like Velvet and Jaune, but the rest of them only made her feel one thing: disgust.

They were so simple to change their mind when it pleased them. They go from throwing jokes and picking on people weaker than them when someone starts it, then they immediately go back once the seeming leader of said group of bullies is defeated by the weaker person. In a way, she found them almost worse than Cardin! At least with Cardin he held on to his beliefs of superiority from beginning to end, nobody made him think differently throughout the few days. But these people? These Hunters and Huntresses? They were everything her grandmother told her, everything her dear gran told her about.

She loathed them.

At the same time, another stack of thoughts were being created by another Hunter, one who just suffered a humiliating defeat. His crew were too loyal to turn their backs on him, but this was insulting! For this pipsqueak of a Hunter to be the one to defeat him, the person who was supposed to be the laughing stock of this school for the rest of her life to make him look like the idiot, that was unheard of. There was no way he could let this person live with this amount of glee or pride, she didn't deserve it.

What she did deserve was the so-called Ace in the Hole he had up to this point. He didn't win the fight. Fine, he could accept that. He would sooner die than let anyone get away with humiliating him like this, especially someone who had a stupid-looking grin on her face the entire time. Just as Ruby's friends were coming up to her, something flashed in Blake's eyes from the spotlight as Cardin began to slowly pull something out from his back. By the time she had her mouth open to warn Ruby, it was already too late.

 ***Splat***

"Ah!" Ruby yelped as she wiped her face.

This was the worst possible thing to do right now. Unable to comprehend his own loss or accept it, Cardin pulled out the final trick he's been hiding till this very point. Ensuring that her back was turned until after she looked back to him, he chucked a small fragile vial right at her face. The vial itself wasn't hard enough to actually hurt her. It was barely any harder than a water balloon when she felt it strike against her head. What was troubling about it though were the contents of said vial, just enough to cover most of her face, more specifically her skin which he was aiming for, and one she was supposedly making worse by rubbing the strange sticky substance on her face with her bare hands.

Forever Fall Tree Sap.

This was perfect. No matter what people said, no one would allow her to live this down. First she embarrassingly throws up after losing a match several days ago, that was the first pound of humiliation she had to suffer. The second pound of embarrassment was going to be the sight of her scratching herself silly after winning a match against the school bully. After witnessing, what he thought was, her breaking out in a small rash the other day just from being in a forest of tree sap, he knew that applying it directly onto her would do more than embarrass her. Maybe her face would swell up? Maybe she would start sweating profusely from places unwanted! Whatever happened to her, he knew it was going to be worth it! Even if the audience looked on with anger at what Cardin did, seeing him for the sore loser he truly was.

"Ruby!" Yang yelled worriedly, running up to her. Now she wanted more than ever to break Cardin's face, the only defense between her and satisfaction being the presence of Glynda near them. "What did you do to her?!"

"Tch, just wait and find out..." He muttered, waiting to see the results.

"Cardin," Glynda spoke up, a look of irritation on her face, "you will be working after class for the next week for that." He didn't care at this point, which she didn't care about. Whether or not she was wary of Ruby, she could not abide by letting a student strike another in front of her, whether directly or otherwise, outside of an exam or a match. The last thing she wanted was for everyone to start thinking they could do that, and no matter what she had against Ruby, she would not allow any other student to go through the same thing because of one person.

"Whatever. Just look at her face, it's gonna happen." He felt his honor return to him, feeling like the mightiest man whoever stood! So what if he lost? So what if he lost the fear or respect from his fellow students and peers? He had the final straw with this Ruby Fall, and he was going to show what happens!

"...Um... Rude much?" Ruby commented as she cleared her eyes. What? What was this? What's going on? Why wasn't she freaking out as much as she did before? Looking over the sticky substance in her hands, she tilted her head curiously as she had a small taste of the mysterious redness. "Mmh, no wonder Nora likes this stuff so much!" She grinned slurping her lips.

"W-What?!" Cardin jumped to his feet as he stared in disbelief. "What the heck? Why aren't you freaking out like before?!"

"Huh?" She looked as if she had no idea what she was talking about.

"Don't play dumb, you know what I mean!" He yelled. "You were freaking out about it all day yesterday scratching yourself!"

"Scratching...?" Ruby poked her chin as she tried thinking. "Oh, that? Oh, you must be talking about the bug bites!" Her simple answer only added to his confusion.

"What? Bug bites?"

"Yeah, you know, like mosquitos? I caught a couple of them the night I was sick so I was just itchy all day." She lied with a simple smile.

"Bull crap!" Cardin yelled back "You know exactly what I'm talking about-"

"Cardin!" Glynda interrupted, pointing off to the side. "My office, now."

"Mmmmmh!" He grumbled to himself. He wanted nothing more than to punch the squirt who was knowingly mocking him at this point, waving at him playfully as he walked away with Glynda. Her friends continued to watch the bully being taken away by the teacher before turning their attention to Jaune.

"Thanks again for the warning, Jaune." She owed everything to Jaune for the dreaded warning he gave her the night before. He had no idea how much she truly owed her at that point. And like most people who've been through a lot themselves, Jaune just chuckled with a grin.

"Heh, it was nothing." He replied with a sniffle, still dealing with his cold. "I was just hanging out with Pyrrha on the rooftops the other day when I... overheard, him talking to his friends down below." It was truly ironic after the last several days he's been through. What caused him so much trouble due to a vantage point where Cardin could eavesdrop had come back to haunt the bully himself. Whoever would've thought he'd be fortunate to hear Cardin's latest plan by doing the exact same thing he did to start all of this?

"You were eavesdropping on him." Normally Weiss would've been rather crossed with such a despicable act, but considering it was dealing with Cardin and that resulted in helping one of her friends, she was willing to let it slide, just this one.

"Heh, I guess you could say that." Jaune mumbled with another chuckle. "So how did you prepare for it anyway, Ruby? I thought you had some reaction or something to the stuff?"

"Mmh, I guess you could just say I was ready for it." Ruby smiled back, sharing the same smile mentally with Pyrrha and Blake as they all wondered how their fourth member was doing...

...

"Alllllright Wolfie, sit!" Nora ordered, waving one of the many jars full of tree sap in her hands.

This was perfect. This was absolutely perfect! She finally had a means to get Wolfie to play with her, each and every day and whenever she wanted! Ok, so maybe not everyday since she was basically Ruby's guardian for the time being, but still just enough to play with Wolfie and be satisfied with it! She continued to giggle endlessly as the large wolf Grimm wagged it's tail playfully, hopping a bit place to place as it wanted the delicious tree sap! All it needed to do was obey her new temporary-master-of-tree-sap until she got the tasty treat!

And more importantly, they didn't have to worry about Cardin's plan at this point. As long as Wolfie wasn't with Ruby while she was near the tree sap, everything would be a-okay.

"Siiiiit..." Nora repeated, this time getting the wolf to finally sit down. "Staaaay..." Once again, she obeyed her. She knew she couldn't get her to speak, not for a lack of wanting to, and she didn't want to take the chance having her lay down caused some vibrations or too much noise to attract unwanted attention, so she did the only other thing she could do at this time. "Shake!"

 _*THUMP*_

...Ok, maybe that was a bad idea. It was a very fun thing to try, anything dog training related was fun to experiment with! Some of them could roll over, others could play dead, and most of them could do the ever infamous "Shake" command just by asking them. And as expected, Wolfie could shake with prefect attendance!... Now if only her massive paw wasn't accidentally pinning Nora's body from the waist up to the ground, that would be some progress.

At least she was still learning, even if Nora was finding it harder to breath, muffled under the giant paw.

"Good girl!'

...

"Well I'm still happy for you, Rubes." Yang complimented, patting her shoulder. "We should go out to celebrate!"

"We could visit the city tomorrow or something?" Pyrrha suggested.

"I would't mind a peaceful walk for one," Weiss nodded, "it's been awhile since we've had time to relax."

"I know a good spot we can have lunch at." Ren commented as the students began walking away, side by side. As they did, Blake turned her attention back to Jaune, walking by his side.

"By the way Jaune, we never got to thank you for helping Ruby when she was sick." She thanked, glad Ruby had some great friends around her. What he returned with was unexpected.

"Huh? Helping her?" He repeated with confusion.

"You know, with the medicine you got for her?" The returned confusion only brought more of her own.

"Umm thanks for the thanks, but I didn't get the medicine for her."

"Wait, you didn't?" Pyrrha spoke up, walking on the other side of him.

"Yeah, I mean I didn't even know what she was sick with directly, so I couldn't risk getting her something that might've made it worse. It was already sitting outside your dorm when I came by, so I thought you ordered it." His explanation made perfect sense to the two girls, but that left just one large question for the two girls who looked back at each other in confusion.

Who brought the medicine?

...

...

A "C". That's what Ruby deserved. It was fair too after all, something she was sure of being one of her teachers. Using excessive dust for a simple match, creating a small crater in the floor of the exam, using such a dangerous weapon all the time without regard for her own injuries or those of others, she was just begging to have a simple grade.

The job of any teacher was to teach, observe, and grade students individually. It was a simple three-step-process that was harder than most people were aware of. If a student failed to learn, then the teacher failed to teach, yet the same couldn't be said if it was the other way around. The path of any teacher was to guide all students to success, to help them with their many struggles, and help them use their own strengths to surpass their own expectations. When a student was confident in their work, then a teacher could be confident in the student. It was sort of like a relationship in a way, one where both sides could benefit.

Her relationship with Ruby was a little... different though. She knew who Ruby was, a person brought up by the wrong side of morality. She wasn't supposed to be someone fighting with evil, she was supposed to be someone fighting against it! She knew almost everything she needed to know about her, about her upbringing, about her very reason of being here. Within this school, she needed to keep her eyes peeled of anything Ruby did, having some discomfort that her friends couldn't be relied upon now, seeing how it's been over a month and they've yet to report anything to her.

Had they fallen under her guise? Did they succumb to evil too? She didn't know what Ruby was capable of, only that she was trouble. Everything she did to everything she was doing was only meant to further her own goal of discovering the maiden, and she couldn't allow that in the slightest. For crying out loud, the young girl had a Grimm following her every move, one most likely watched upon by Salem herself! How was she supposed to trust someone so close to evil like Ozpin did?

It was one of the reasons she was so unfair with her grades. She couldn't take the chances of making things easier for her, she needed to make things harder so Ruby had less time to focus on finding the maiden's whereabouts. Sure, Ozpin was against the idea himself, but decided to let it be if it meant she would ease up on Ruby enough to stop following her around everywhere.

Something she was still regretting!

She shouldn't be easing up on her, if anything she should be harder on her! She didn't deserve any sympathy if she was a being fighting for evil. Sure, there was that minuscule chance that she could change sides as Ozpin hope, that tinniest sliver of a chance being the only reason she had yet to take matters into her own hands. She still proved herself to be a threat though! Not caring if she picked a fight with others if she saw someone being bullied, not caring how she acted for the most part as long as people got to see her casual and cheerful side, not caring at times whether she was practically snoozing or late to most of her classes. She was just a carefree girl who looked like she didn't have a worry in the world, taking things as they came and moving along with whatever troubles that followed. She didn't even care if she knew how hard Glynda herself was making things for her, she just went along with it as she tried to life freely.

She stopped typing as these thoughts came to her head. This hurt. It always hurt. No matter what Ruby did, it reminded her of someone. Taking a moment to dig through her desk, she pulled out a small lock box which she carefully undid, adjusting the measures of it until it finally opened for her to grab the contents inside. There she was, that one other person who reminded her so much of Ruby.

Summer Rose. The class clown, the girl who always preferred to goof off, the woman who always saw the good in others, and the one who wanted everyone to get along and work together.

She wonders if she'd be proud of what her daughter turned into, what forces compel her to work with them. Maybe she would be okay with it? Maybe she would be revolted by the sight of such things? ...No. No she wouldn't. She wouldn't care what her daughter's turned into, she would be too happy to know she's alive and well. Just like she's seen numerous times in this class photo, being the spotting image of what Ruby looked like today. With that cheeky smile, white-hooded cloak, her classmates gathered around her as well as her teammates. And right alongside her would be Glynda herself, smiling at the camera as she always did back then.

It almost pained her. Every time she remembered those good times back when Summer was leading Team STRQ, remembering all the laughs Summer herself would cause from the classroom, all the tears she shed when the stress became too unbearable. It reminded Glynda she was human, that the person who once asked her for help constantly, for advice, was the mother of a daughter who was just like her in every way. She might not have cried to her or anything like that, but she remained the happy, cheeky, girl she was since coming to this academy.

She sighed. She would never get over how much Ruby reminded her of her mother no matter how much it hurt her. She could be fighting for whatever side she wanted to and she would still be the daughter of one of her favorite students, who brightened up even the worst of days. It would always hurt her, and would always make her wipe away a small tear from her eye.

Maybe she could cut her some slack. She decided after the sickness she dealt with this week, she could give her a simple "B-", just to show her she was doing well enough to not worry about her classes. Not to mention with the humiliation and embarrassment she had to deal with for the last several days since being sick, something Cardin took easy advantage of like the bully she knew he was being. And like all those other days, she set the picture back in the lockbox, placing it back in her drawers as she went back to grading.

Leaving it right next to an empty medicine package...

...

...

...

 _ **A/N: Wait, hold on, let me take care of that: *writes review* Nyeeeh, you made Glynda give Ruby the medicine, how cheesy! Total 0/0, roflcopter, #thisfanficsucks !...**_

 ** _Was that accurate enough XP?_**

 ** _Lol, all joking aside, I do appreciate the many people who wrote more than JUST about that scene, and like extend a big shoutout to one of my longtime fans Endless Chains, his long and positive reviews always brighten my spirits. Additional thanks to others like Nightmare Union, Sani, and others who talked about different things other than the cop out XP._**

 ** _Also apologize to Loki who felt like I jail baited him- sorry dude, wasn't anything personal, just that this is the way I write most of my stuff with mystery, suspense, adventure, etc. And as much as I playfully hate Jaune (for reasons you can read in my chibi update), he's got a lot of character and personality too, and the last I wanted was to get several Jaune fans rioting against me for ruining his character. So once again, sorry XP._**

 ** _Anyway, we're almost done with Volume 1 Folks :D! Just a few more chapters and we'll have Vol. 2 on ours hands- and yes, there will be MORE DIFFERENCES in it than there were in this one. This one I just had to make more similar due to the introductions of characters here and there, as well as plot reasons. And I'm not saying it's gonna change Vol. 2 completely, but with everyone being out in the city more and all over, there will be a lot more different things going on this time round too. And as the series goes on, I guarantee things will continue to change with it._**

 ** _Just picture how Volume 3 is going to go at this rate ^^!_**

 ** _Anyway, up next instead of a main episode, we got another bonus episode- this one dedicated to EndlessChains for his always positive, always long reviews, and being such a great friend/fan of the series all the same ^^ Expect his bonus episode, just as soon as I can sort through one of the 10 different requests he asked for and choose which one to go with XP..._**

 ** _OH ONE MORE SUPER IMPORTANT THING I FORGOT TO MENTION! The next Holiday contest is underway, with the classical holiday being the time of love and friendship and yada yada, so our next obvious theme is... Valentine's Day ^^! Rules are about the same as always, post a holiday-themed fanfic based off this fanfic! There is a 3k word minimum requirement to be eligible for entry, but the longer you make it the more points you'll win ^^! Whoever has the best by Valentine's day will receive a free episode/bonus episode request of their choosing, like Sani won several chapters ago for his Christmas_** ** _entry!_**

 ** _The deadline is Valentine's day (Feb. 14th, right?), 3k word minimum, and no people, sadly, NO SMUT XD Keep it Teen! However, I will make it a bit interesting- you can allow some sort of "future episode", in that you can have pairings married and whatnot, so big bonus points if you have some family or couple together, like the infamous Weiss and Ruby offspring Mei Schnee, the adorable kitten that is Li Belladonna, and any other ones you can think of that are legit pairings online and known._**

 ** _(And yes, I allow them to have offspring/kids even if they're both girls X) *wink wink*)_**

 ** _Or keep it simply in the same timeline as always between when ruby's a baby to present day. There's no bonus for doing the above way unless it's REALLY good and adorable ^_^. Idk, surprise me._**

 ** _Till then, leave a like, fav, follow, and review if you enjoyed and hope to see you soon ^^!_**


	42. Interlude 4: Days of their Lives

**_A/N: Hoooootilalala! I have no idea what that means, all I do know is that this is what over 7 hours of straight writing will do, resulting in 9.4k words._**

 ** _Now some things to note here: This is a three-for-one special ^^ What I mean by that- normally, this would either be a regular chapter or a bonus episode. Coincidentally though, I needed one more interlude chapter due to needing another scene related to the following below. Ironically, two people had a bonus episode ready for them and along the lines of the below. So how could I possibly refuse an excuse to do all three at once and consider this a 3-for-1 special for Endlesschains and Sani2431 ^^_**

 ** _And some other things to note: I'M FREAKING TIRED _! I've been up since 5 in the morning writing this, so you're not gonna see my best writing down below as it turns to mush. Some things will be okay, others seeming rushed or confusing depending on where they are. Just know that along with the main plot, i was fulfilling the two requests related to seeing some interaction with Ruby in the past with her family. The other one, well... To the person who wanted something new added to the mix (you know who you are) just know you'll see it in the following chapters as it builds up more and more. Right now, I just need to rest cause I am dead tired T_T..._**

 ** _Enjoy ^^!_**

...

...

...

 ** _~This will be the day we waited for~_**

 _Cinder and salem are seen standing on a balcony on the side of the latter's home looking out in the distance to where Vale would be. As they look up to a Nevermore flying overhead, the camera pans up as well, showing an orange sky that slowly turns blue._

 ** _~This will be the day we open up the door~_**

 _Returning back down from its view of the sky, we see Ruby opening the door to Beacon's main hall, Wolfie peaking out behind her, Blake standing next to her, oblivious to the Grimm's presence._

 ** _~I don't wanna hear your absolution~_**

 _The Camera 'flies' through the hallways until it settles on Ozpin going through illegible notes on his scroll next to a photo of young miss Fall._

 ** _~Hope your ready for a revolution~_**

 _Outside his window, WYJR can be seen standing together. As the screen is overtaken by a storm of white petals, Weiss pushes Jaune a bit away._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of new solutions~_**

 _One of the petals remain before a black background and is revealed to be Ruby as she pulls out [insert weapon name] and starts twirling her Scythe around, leaving a burning crimson Halo above herself._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of blood evolution~_**

 _The red halo turns into Wolfie's red Iris as the camera zooms out revealing the pool of blood beneath the Grimm. before he dissolves into a shadow and to the side._

 ** _~In time your heart will open minds~_**

 _The shadow flows beneath Ruby cloak who is standing with her team, a conflicted expression on her face. Soon though it is replaced with a look of determination as the Camera pans once more._

 ** _~A Story will be told~_**

 _When the camera settles on Ruby's viewpoint we see Amber kneeling before Cinder, before the camera zooms back and her surroundings turn into the vault beneath Beacon._

 ** _~And Victory is in a Simple Soul~_**

 _We see a final shot of a young Ruby hugging her family, which reveals itself to be an old picture in Salem's Hand who is enjoying tea served by Neo._

"Oh come oooooooon!" Ruby shouted just loud enough for herself to hear, squeezing her head as she scratched frantically.

Two months. She has officially been here for nearly two months and she had yet find the freaking maiden! She had one easy task, two if she managed to do the latter afterwards: find the maiden, and then kill her if able. At this point she didn't need to worry about finding the maiden anymore because at the rate this was going, the maiden was going to be long gone by the time she made the slightest bit of progress.

Every book, every single scripture, every stupid piece of reading she could find regarding this place was all for naught. Exploring the school grounds was a no-go. She looked through every nook and cranny, checked every door at least three times, and explored every possible location off the school itself and couldn't find any secrets or possible ideas for where the maiden was located. The books themselves were nothing more than a waste of her time, the hundreds and hundreds of pages being filled with details and not one of them telling her where she could find some secret location within this place.

Oh, duh, of course. It was a secret after all. Thank god she realized that only for the FIFTIETH BLOODY TIME ALREADY, or she might've gone insane! All these books were good for at this point were being a soft surface for her to bang her head against repeatedly, getting fed up with this progress.

She's seen numerous books, having checked them all at least twice by now, and still not a single clue after all this time! Her family was patient with her, still supporting her efforts and praising her for her dedication, but she knew that would only last so long. Even if they did give her the next who-knows-how-many years to come, it wouldn't speed up the process anytime soon.

And what could she do at this point anymore? She couldn't just go up and directly ask any of the staff, especially Ozpin, where the maiden was within this academy. It was on a need-to-know basis. Not the kind that she "didn't need to know" either, more along the lines of the "how in Remnant do you know about the maidens to begin with" case. The only thing more doubtful than them letting her off with confused looks was the possibility of them actually telling her where they were.

"Ugh!" Ruby groaned rubbing her head. "What am I supposed to do now?" She mumbled resting her head on her arms, getting sleepy after the last six hours of reading.

Reading was no longer an option, if she could call it that anymore. Whatever books she did find on Beacon at this point would've been a waste of time anyway, the ones she's read up to this point numbered in the thousands of pages and thousands of words in each one. It probably took her most of this month alone just to read the last three.

Calling for help was also out of the option too. This entire time, her very reason for being here was to prove that she could be useful to her family. They were a strange bunch, to say the least. Having a fiery witch as a mother, the leader of the Grimm as a grandmother, and the weirdest assortment of uncles between a crazy Faunus scorpion, a peaceful yet strong fighter, and a doctor who was only concerned for the pursuit of knowledge, they were about as weird of a family as people could come from.

But they were _her_ family, her's. She lived right alongside the mfor a good portion of her life, and came to know all about them through her time. Her mother was taken in by Salem herself after her troubled life, Hazel had a tragic history involving his sister because of Beacon, Watts was interested in the pursuit of knowledge and disgraced by his so-called "friends". And Tyrian?...Well... all fairness he was still pretty crazy and she was too scared to question him. Either way, he was still family.

And her grandmother?

Her grandmother taught her about Grimm...

...

...

 ***clak***

"Hi-yah!" Ruby roared as she struck the wooden sword atop of Hazel's head. Like many of the other strikes before it, this was easily blocked with the man's bare arms, Hazel only having to stand in one place as his palms blocked it.

This was the usual training regime Ruby grew accustomed to as the months went by. She wasn't just spending her time relaxing or socializing with the many new people she came to grow up with, she was training and working with them to become a stronger person. While it might've felt repetitive only socializing with the people surrounding her for the folowing five years, she came to grow and like each and every one of them in her own special way.

The first of her favorite people, not counting her big sister or grandmother of course, was Hazel. At first, it was safe to admit he was rather intimidating. He was one of the tallest people within Salem's domain, always had this bear-like muscle mass to him and the arms that looked thick enough to crush mere coconuts to dust!

The dirt kind, not the energy kind.

But after some time with him, she came to realize he was really more of a teddybear than just a scary bear. He was nice, kind, gentle, and he seemed to have a great deal of care about his allies as well as Ruby. Whenever there was someone Ruby felt the need to talk to, Hazel would be there. If she ever wanted to know something about Salem, he was more thna happy to provide most of the facts. And compared to Watts, he was always patient with her and never berrating her for messing up on her tasks or training. He was always calm and gentle with her, never rushing her, and never scaring her.

When it came to the training she did with Hazel it fell under the line of physical training. From weapon training, muscle training, stamina, endurance, every single thing she needed to make her body physically stronger. Sometimes it would be just normal training exercises like weightlifting or running laps around the domain. At other times, like now, she would find herself training with various practice weapons like the wooden sword clutched in her hands.

"Alright, you can take a short break." He said, letting Ruby catch her breath as she sweat a little. Three straight hours of training would put anyone through exhaustion, not to mention the warm clothes she was currently wearing.

It was a pretty standard uniform for the type of weapon's training they were currently doing. It was a basic kendo outfit, one complete with a white kendogi top and blue hakama aroudn her waist, one perfectly fit for her size. Hazel himself was wearing his usual clothing, not fretting over the details of his outfit since he was the one teaching Ruby how to fight.

"Phew, you're really strong." Ruby complimented wiping the sweat from her brow. Like many other times he replied with a normal smile smile, watching her as she caught her breath.

"You're improving quite well, Ruby. Salem will be proud to know of your progress." She smiled at this with her usual perky smile.

"You think so?" That was great news to hear! If there was one thing she loved to know it was that she was impressing Salem. For the many things she did, and all the things she received in her life, she wanted to do something that would repay the favor to Salem herself. She was always nice to Ruby, compared to some of the horror-like stories of her attitude from the others. They would always go on to say how she never smiled this often until Ruby came into her life, her smile being nothing more than a small grin at most. So it was no surprise Ruby wanted to do something to return the favor, and she found no better way than making Salem proud of her. "Thanks Hazel. But why do I need to practice using so many weapons?" She glanced around the room once more, equipped with numerous training weapons.

"So you can learn how to fight against them." He replied, walking over to one of the benches with the shorter girl trailing behind him. "Every weapon has it's own strengths and weaknesses. The key to overcoming them is learning the different techniques people would use against you so you can counter them ."

"You mean like fighting styles?" The young Ruby wasn't new to this concept. Before all the weapon training she was currently doing, Hazel taught her many different lessons of self-defense training, using nothing more than her bare hands. From akido to simple karate, there were many different techniques Ruby learned from the great mound of muscle. And while she wasn't taught to master any of these techniques, she learned the basic portions of each lesson to get a hand in any form of personal combat.

"Precisely." He nodded. "The only way to learn how to fight against a weapon is to learn what an opponent will do to fight you with it. Like swords, maces, axes-"

"And lances?"

"Heh," he patted Ruby's head as he chuckled, "took the words right out of my mouth."

It wasn't hard for Hazel to warm up to the girl compared to the rest. She was innocent, full of excitement and wonder, and had every desire to want to be of help towards everyone around her. She reminded him all too easily of someone special to him, someone he... knows won't be coming back. Someone he knows would've been overjoyed to meet Ruby.

And Ruby was far too attentive not to notice the look he gave her from time to time.

"Is something wrong?"

"What? Oh, no, sorrry. I was just... thinking..."

"About your sister?" His sigh confirmed it. Ruby wasn't a stranger about his sister, only to the details pertaining to her. "What was she like?"

"Hmhm, she was great Ruby. You kinda remind me of her. She was always full of wonder, wanted to prove herself to others, she was just,.. great." Like many other times he went into detail about her, his expression would start to change from simple and comfortable smile to one filled with regret and sorrow. "She had so much potential to offer the world..."

"What happened to her?" She was still a child, he understood it. Otherwise she would've known about certain things she could pry into and what things she shouldn't.

Just like his sister.

"Hunters happened to her, Ruby. One of her biggest dreams was to become a great Hunter, saving lives and making a name for herself. She wanted to make everyone proud of her! ...But that only lasted so long. She was tempted by them, persuaded that what they were doing was right... but the minute she showed weakness, the moment she needed help the most, they turned their backs on her, and left her for dead."

The look of shock and disbelief on her face was completely understandable, and he had a hard time comprehending it too. To be honest, most of it wasn't even factual, it was mostly opinion and observation based. Yet he could never forget the dread that filled him upon hearing of his sister's death, the guilt that beriddened him for failing to keep her safe, nor the regret that still haunts him to this day knowing that his sister would never come back. Even after he discovered her mangled corpse in the forest, the dried blood from her person, he refused to believe it.

Yet on that day he wasn't filled with sadness or despair, but anger. Anger towards the Hunters, anger towards everyone who claimed to be at the top of their game and promised to keep one another safe. Why did his sister have to die alone out here? What happened to her so-called "teammates" that were supposed to be at her back?! If they had died alongside her, then at least the grief that fills him would have some meaning, but no. There was no reasoning behind this, no excuse to explain why she had to die out here like an animal. There was nothing but unseething rage he had towards the supposed heroes of this world, who would continue to remember the ones that stayed alive, while leaving the ones left for dead forgotten.

She sacrificed everything for what she believed in, and that belief ended up betraying her. The Hunters ended up betraying her. Ozpin ended up betraying her, the person behind everything to a Hunter. He was the only person he could comprehend responsible for everything that happened to his sister, the only one he could blame.

And he wouldn't be satisfied until he squeezed the life out of Ozpin's very neck.

"That's horrible..." Ruby mumbled, nearly sniffling at his story. It did ease his burden somewhat to hear somebody who sympathized with his story, regardless of how innocent and young she was to understand it truly. She jumped to her feet before him and looked at him with a look of determination. "Let's go beat up those evil hunters right now!"

Adorable. The only word he could use to describe it. She was definitely the kind of kid who grew up on cartoons everyday, another trait shared by his sister. "Hahaha, I think you need a bit more training before taking them on." He replied, patting her head again as he got to his feet. "It's just us against all of them. Even with all the Grimm to help us, it means nothing if any of us die because of it, that'll be one less person to stand up to them."

"Then why don't we just find more people?" Once again he could only roll his eyes mentally.

"There's not many people willing to work with the Grimm, let's just say." With a hearty nod to the girl, he let out a deep breath as he rose to his feet. "Now come on, break times over. Let's practice with another weapon, your choice."

"Really?" That was always fun! There were only so many weapons to choose from that, at times, they would use the same one repeatedly just to make the newer ones more interesting. It was a great way to add a little variety to the day-to-day scheduling. "Can use practice scythes?"

...

...

"Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. And-"

"Let me guess: wrong?" Ruby rolled her eyes as she lied her head on the desk.

"Congrats! You got that one right out of everything else you got wrong." Watts stated, scribbling another incorrect checkmark on the pages.

"Uggghhh!" Groaning was all Ruby could respond with without worrying of him correcting THAT like everything else.

Watts was without a doubt the most oppressive and diffficult person for Ruby to get along with. From mannerisms, ettiquette, style, teachings, the ways she learned, how she learned to do things, and what ways she got things done, there was nothing about her that he didn't grade. Even basic things such as breathing or simply walking didn't go by him without him grading her on it. And the part that really annoyed her was that he himself claimed it was more annoying for him than it was for her!

To be fair, she didn't entirely blame it on him. His one role as one of her several new "uncles" was to be the teacher. Nothing more, nothing less. And despite his many misgiving for it, he was silenced at the mere whim of a finger, cutting off any and all irritations he had about it and putting him to work on it pronto.

Well, maybe he didn't lose the irritation at least. He was very thorough about all his work and everything he did in his questionable attempts to better Ruby. He had no care for the child other than progress. Like many teachers in the world, he saw her progress at his own. Her failures were his failures no matter how badly he wished against it. So he decided if he was going to be forced to do something for the kid, they were going to be up to his standards.

And sadly for Ruby, he had very specific, detailed, standards.

"Not one single one of these are correct." He continued.

"Are you judging by the answers, or how my handwriting is?" The answer wouldn't have surprised her if it was the latter, which is exactly what she got.

"The handwriting of course." Of course. "I've seen better handwriting from a one-armed kangaroo!"

"Probably married her too..." She mumbled.

"What was that?"

"Nothing!" She feigned innocence quickly with a nervous smile. He just furrowed his brow again as he went back to work.

It really didn't make any sense to her. A lot of things didn't make sense to her. Why was he like this? He was one of the rudest people she's ever known, more than ten million uncle Romans put together! Did he like acting this way? Did he just enjoy the thought of tormenting others for his own amusement? Didn't he want to be friends with anyone? What was his deal?!

...Come to think of it, what was his deal?

"Hey Uncle Watts?"

"Excuse me?" He raised his brow again, earning another typical roll of the eyes from his unfortunate student.

"Sorry. _Professor Watts_ , I have a question."

"Yes?"

"Why aren't you a real professor?" For the first time ever, she found a question that made him stop writing about how imperfect she is.

"I beg your pardon?" He had to admit, the girl did find a question that piqued his curiosity.

"I mean, you always go on and on about studying this, observing that, and everything. Why didn't you just become a regular professor or scientist instead of choosing to do all this?"

"..." Uh oh, the silent stare.

Watts had three different emotions which Ruby came to learn about. First, was the grimly, no pun intended, stare. Very few things ever shuttered Watts' core, and if something did, it was bad. Two, the irritant scowl. It was actually a pretty common look on him, at least two-thirds of his faces usually consisted of it. She came to call it his "Normal face", since it never looked any worse or better no matter how many times she saw him.

The third face, however, was something of a very rare sight. It was the face of intrigue. It was a much more rare sight than that of a shooting star for the young Ruby, and considering that only accounts for two times, that's saying a lot. At least provided they weren't actually helicopors again like the several times she got those two mixed up.

"You... think I wanted to be here?" His reaction came as a bit of a surprise to her.

"Well... yeah... until you said that..." She said, twiddling her thumbs together.

"Little miss Fall, I didn't want any part of this life." The professor stated, stepping out of his chair as he walked over to the white board with his back turned to her. "I didn't want anything to do with all this Grimm stuff. Why I never even wanted to take part of any war or conumdrum the rest of you find yourselves in."

"Then why are you here?"

"Because I..." He sighed, slowly descending into the the cushioned chair at his personal desk. "Because I had no other choice."

"Choice?" The air felt a little thick as the tension began to sink in. Something about his past troubled him, something Ruby had never heard about before.

"In this world Ruby, you'll come across two different forms of people- those who believe in you, and those who don't."

"i'm pretty sure there's more than those two types of people you know..." With this retort, she earned that always faithful, always expectant look she came to know of him.

Annoyance.

"Do you want to hear the rest of the story or don't you?"

"Yes please." She actually did want to hear the rest of the story. Not entirely out of interest though, mostly just to get out of doing anymore paperwork for the day.

"Hmph, anyway, as I was saying, they're the only two kind of people that exist around here. People who believe in you and those who don't. The only ones different from them is yourself."

That was something Ruby could understand. If there's one thing she constantly learned from her many cartoons and superhero shows, it's that you didn't have to be anything you didn't want to. You could be your own hero or villain, good or bad, right and wrong person. You never had to be what everyone else wanted you to be.

"I was actually a scientist for several different companies, including a position as one of Atlas' head science divisions."

"That sounds interesting." Out of the many things she did learn on a daily basis, one of her favorite things to learn were about Grimm and weapons, and military-related weapons were no exception. The only thing she hated learning about were the stupid reasons people went to war to begin with. If the world was truly as deceitful as her grandmother told her to be, then she was more than glad to bring a change to it. Watts himself grew a small grin at her remark.

"Interesting doesn't even begin to cover it." He leanred back in his own chair, recollecting every grand moment of his previous life. "I had everything back then. Seniority, respect, resources, everything I could've wanted!" Ruby watched closely at his expression, noticing the gleaming shine in his eye slowly fade as he slumped back into his chair.

"What happened to it?"

"...The maidens happened." The maidens. One of the oldest stories her mother or Salem ever told her about. In a world like this, the maidens themselves almost soudned like an actual fairytail told in childrens story. To her surprise it was actually a true story, or at least one her family constantly told her was true. She could think of no better way to help her family than finding the maidens like her family always dreamed of.

Which was still some time to come.

"Nobody else believed the maidens existed, but I knew differently. I knew maidens were real. In fact, I had enough of a thesis to prove they lived right within our very world! All I requested was some time and resources to prove my research was real, to prove the fairytails truly existed! I just needed to prove everything..."

"But nobody believed you, did they?" Watts closed his eyes at this, taking a deep breath.

"It would've been better if they left it at just that. I was ridiculed, humiliated, mocked, I lost all my respect and credibility, I was practically kicked out of Atlas altogether! Nobody wanted anything more to do with me... that's when Salem found me."

"Heh heh, that's granny for you." She kicked her legs a little in laughter. It was almost amusing to the professor, noting how Ruby truly had the innocence of a child despite living alongside Salem for these past months.

"She was the only one who believed me, and the only one willing to provide the resources I needed to prove my theories were correct, so what choice did I have? Even if it meant surrounding myself with darkness, I was going to make the truth known, and I'm going to make those who mocked me pay for it."

"They sound like a bunch of idiots." They truly did to her. What the heck was wrong with these people? Someone said they had information about something as grand as the maidens, fairytales he could prove reality. Sure it sounded crazy, it would've been to anyone if they said some fairytale was actually true, but if he assured them he had proof of it and they didn't give him the chance to prove it, then they were far worse than Watts had ever been to her. In fact, comparing the two he was the nice one out of any of the scientists! What a bunch of jerks!

Like the previous comment, he found himself grinning at her remark. "Idiots indeed..." Maybe this is why Salem kept the girl around. It was one of the biggest mysteries he had yet to solve in his lifetime, never being able to fathom why someone like Salem would keep a girl as young as Ruby within this domain, at least not until now. She had a peculiar air about her, a sense of decency. At the very least, she wasn't as annoying as he saw her to be. Glancing over at the clock on the wall, he gave a small shrug while looking over the papers in his hand. "You can go for the evening."

"Huh?" Normally, that would be the greatest thing to ever hear from someone like him! There were only so many hours in a day, specifically three, that you could devote your attention to a class-like setting. But not once since meeting him had he ever let class out early, even a simple five minutes. "Now? Why early?"

"Do you want to leave early or do I need to assign you another fifty pages of reading tonight?" His threat was made clear as all color drained from the girl's face.

"Point made. See ya." And like any child terrified of school, she quickly gathered her belongings and dashed out of the room posthaste. He couldn't help but smirk at her behavior as he looked over her work once more.

At least she was quirky.

...

...

"Not too far, Ruby." Salem said as the two walked.

The outside of Salem's domain was truly beautiful to the young eleven-year-old, much to the surprise of the leader of darkness herself. She thought the girl would be too terrified at first to walk upon these grounds, the rust-colored grounds beneath them almost as red as blood. There was never any feeling of clarity or peace within this realm, only darkness and despair.

Yet to the child before her, all she could see was a simple place of wonder and excitement. She loved the sight of the beautiful sparkly sky, and the amazing crystals that protruded from the ground. Having been within this Grimm-infested world of Salem's for nearly a year now, she was used to the sight of the dangerous creatures, seeing them no scarier than the average house cat by this point.

At least if she was with her grandmother, anyway.

"Woooow..." Ruby oohed and awed as she sightseed, standing atop one of the many purple crystals.

"Ruby." Salem called over again. Ruby just smiled to her as she ran to her side, The "grandmother" couldn't help smiling a little herself, taking the young child's hand as the two walked down the path. "Do you like it here, Ruby?"

"Mhhm!" Ruby nodded with a smile. "It's really pretty here, Granny Salem!"

"Hmhm, Ruby, what have I told you about that?" She still chuckled despite the child's mistake.

"Oh...sorry Gra- I mean, Salem." She knew her grandmother never liked actually being called "Granny" or "Grandma", and not just for personal reasons either. She had an order to run, and the last thing she needed was embarassing nicknames on the child's part.

All the same, Salem just chuckled to herself as she continued walking hand in hand. "It's alright dear, just keep it between the two of us, ok?"

"'Kay!"

These were a few moments of Salem's life that she found peaceful, something she always had to thank the young one for. Ever sicne Ruby came into her life, she's felt more at peace than ever before. There were still some things she needed to get used to, though.

For one, she had to work on not frightening the child so much. Before, she would constantly bark out orders on a daily basis, whether the child was in the room or not, and it would frighten her with the tone or faces she made that would terrify the little girl. Honestly, at first, she didn't actually mind that fact either. She wanted Ruby to grow up brave and strong, so a little fear was alright to her in her book. At least that was the case until Ruby started trying to avoid Salem out of fear, forcing her to better herself in how she spoke.

The second thing she needed to get used to was how strong the girl was. Unlike her mother, Ruby had little fighting experience since coming into her life, and had been a relatively peaceful life until Cinder brought Ruby over to stay. Salem wasted no time trying to bring Ruby into the fold, having Hazel train her daily, having Watts teach her everything he could, and having Tyrian stay as far away as possible from her unless she ordered him to do something, which she was too scare dof doing.

It only took no sooner than three weeks before the young Ruby found herself sick with a fever, It left Salem with an unfamiliar case of guilt for the young girl, staying by her bedside until the child slept again with her illness.

The last thing she needed to get used to was that Ruby was... Ruby. She wasn't like her mother at all, except for the compassion she held for things. She wasn't coldhearted, she had many things to fear, she was still easily scared, and she never knew what it was like to not have a family, not one that didn't love her.

On a whole, they were all things that made Ruby especially weak, everything that made her vulnerable. They were everything Salem resented, cursed, wished to be rid of. That's why it hurt her all the same when she pictured Ruby without these things.

"So, how are your studies going, Ruby?" Despite living in the castle together, she rarely had time to chat with Ruby in person, save for meals together and the occasional lesson.

"Pretty good." The child tapped her chin in thought. "Hazel says I'm getting really strong, but I don't know how I'm doing with Watts. He keeps finding things wrong with my lessons even if I get them all right."

"He's a bit of a perfectionist, so you'll have to excuse his behavior."

"It's okay. He's not threatening me with his ruler or something anymore."

"I see... That's good to hear." It truly was. She didn't want to continue hearing about how he's been scaring the young girl like that after the talk she had with him. "Have you been enjoying your time with the Grimm?"

"Oh yeah!" That always got Ruby excited. She found it fun to talk about the numerous types of Grimm around Salem's fortress. From the simple bug ones to the large two-headed snakes, they were all interesting to the young girl. "Yesterday I played with a biiiiig Ursa, a lot bigger than the other ones. I think it was one of those Alpha ones."

"Hmhm, very good. Do you remember what a boarbatusk's weakness is?"

"The underbelly! The top part's too hard, that's why it likes to roll up into a ball."

"I think it's more about staying alive than simply having fun, dear." It was amusing to hear Ruby describe it as something it likes to do. "How about this one? Do you know why Beowulfs are so slow?"

"Granny, you're trying to trick me!" She chuckled. "Beowulfs are really fast, not slow. They hunt in packs, and the older ones are a lot smarter than the younger ones."

"Heh, you caught me." This was nice. Just plain, simple, nice. Just her, Ruby, walking hand in hand as she showed her the outside world of her domain. It was about as calming as you could get in a land infested by the hundreds with Grimm. And like all peaceful moments of Salem's life...

It wasn't going to last.

"So, can you control all the Grimm, Gran?" Ruby asked tilting her head curiously.

"Heh, interesting question." She looked down at the child in her hand with the same curiosity. "What brings this up?"

"Well, I just thought you could control them and everything, right? You're the Queen of Grimm like Uncle Watts said, right?"

"Well... Yes Ruby, I suppose that's one way to look at it. But it's really a matter of knowing of their existence."

"Knowing if they exist?"

"Yes, Ruby." Ruby watched as her grandmother suddenly came to a halt from their little trek, walking over to one of the nearby crystals. It only took a simple smack with the bunt of her wrist to shatter the tip of the standing crystal, breaking into several large shards which slowly dropped into the leader's palm, walking back to the young child as she kneeled to her level. "Now, without looking at the crystals, how many do you suppose I have in my hand?"

Ruby looked at the closed palm, trying to make an estimate of how many she could actually hold in her hand "Um... I dunno like... maybe seven?" Cinder just smiled at this as she opened her palm, revealing 11 in tact shattered crystals. "Oh... guess not."

"Do you know why you got the answer wrong, Ruby?" She asked standing up again, continuing the walk.

"Umm... because it just was?" Ruby shrugged, unable to tell where or what she was trying to get at.

"It's because you weren't aware of it." She corrected. After a few moments, Ruby slowly nodded as the realization finally came to her.

"Oooh..."

"It's a matter of knowing if a a Grimm exists or not. If I so much as see them, then I know they exist, and then I can control them. That's why I come out here at least three times a day, to watch as they're born so I know what exists and what doesn't." She explained. "At the same time, there's Grimm all over the world, Ruby. Do you know how many people are on this planet right now?"

"Not really. Millions? Maybe a billion or two?" It was fun seeing the girl try and think of answers to life's biggest mysteries.

"Exactly. You don't know how many people there are in the world or where they are. At the same time, I don't know how many Grimm there are around the world."

"But you can find them with other Grimm, right?"

"Very good." She comened patting her head. "If I see one through a Grimm's eye, I can control it too. But I have to have control of one that's already far away, and the process can usually take hours to find a specific one in a specific place, even if I concentrate."

"So you can control Grimm, but only if you know of them... right?"

"Yes, Ruby."

"Is that why my mom died?"

"I-" Salem froze at the statement, turning herself around to look at the frowning girl herself. Out of the many things she asked her about so far, that was the last thing she would ever expect. Come to think of it, she never would've expected that at all! The question troubled Salem to no end, only more knowing this line of questioning would hurt the both of them. "Ruby, where did you hear about that?"

"Tyrian." Of course. "He said you killed her cause you wanted to kill me too..." She began to tear up, sniffling a little. "Is that true?"

"Tyrian..." She wanted to do nothing more than show the rage building inside of her, the fire burning in her eyes. Yet she knew the minute she did, Ruby would only be more terrified of her than she was now. RIght now, the only thing she could bother doing was figure out how to explain this to her, and contemplate the massive amount of disappointment she was going to relay to Tyrian. "Look, what-"

"Please don't lie Gran..." The child requested as she sniffled. "I want to trust the next thing you say... p-please don't lie about it..."

"Ruby..." This is what she hated, why she detested growing closer to the child. What5 she did, what she does, what she plans, they were all with an evil, merciless, heart. She needed to do it, anyone with a different kind of heart wouldn't be able to do the kinds of things she does. She needed to be cold, hold true onto her conviction if she ever desired to bring her plans to fruition.

That's what made Ruby the most troubling person she's met. She didn't want to betray her trust, she actually found herself slowly coming to care for the young girl. Was it all a trick? Was it all just a part of her semblance? If she bothered to delve deeper into the child's mind, she would know the truth right away. The only setback to using this method was the intense pain it required her to put Ruby under, something she would never want to do.

She truly hated this child for the love she was growing for her.

"Ruby, you want to know the truth of your mother?" She child couldn't audibly respond as her words became small sobs. The only thing she managed to do was nod her head slowly up and down. "The truth is... I don't know." Ruby blinked at the given answer,

"Huh?" Was she being serious, or was she lying again? She knew Salem cared for her, so there was no telling how much of her words she could trust. If she did lie to her, it would at least tell her Salem cared enough for her to lie for her sake. But this was something she needed to know, or she would never be able to live peacefully with the doubt clouding her mind.

"Whatever happened with your mother, I was completely unaware of what transpired that night or what Grimm attacked her."

"Would that have made a difference?" She knew much about Salem, some things more than the rest of them knew. "You hate the Hunters and Huntresses... and my mom was a Huntress..."

"Hm... Maybe not. I could've come across her days from them, months, years, it's hard to say." She gently lifted the child's chin with her finger, turning her head to look at her teary face with a genuine smile. "But from what Cinder told me, what she said about the day she came across your mother, there's no way I would've killed her that night."

"W...Why?" She needed to know. She needed to hear the truth. And even if she just lied to her about it right now, she needed some form of comfort.

"Because she cared deeply about you." Truth. That was the truth of the matter. It was one of the few cold secrets of her life that she kept from many of the others, the most faithful of followers and devotees. Not Hazel, Watts, nor Tyrian knew of this truth, and she intended to keep it that way. It was one of the most unbearable pains she grew accustomed to living with for the majority of her life, and would continue to be burdened with that fact for the many years to come. "You remember the story I told you about, about my past that night you slept with me?"

"Mh hm..." Ruby wiped her tears a bit as she sniffed. "You told me later it really happened to you."

"Your mother was just like my own, Ruby. Caring, protective, wanting to keep you safe from the world. There's no way I would've been capable of bringing myself to harm a mother like that, not one as caring as my own."

"You... You promise...?" Salem affirmed it with a nod.

"I pro-!" She was cut off. No force on Remnant would've prevented her surprise from when Ruby threw her arms around her, crying softly into her shoulders. Why did this child have to cause her so much grief? Why did Tyrian have to blab about her mother like that? All he had to do was never tell her about her mother's death and she could've avoided this whole entire scene just now. She was riddled with disappointment from him, one she would make sure he felt when this was all over. Because thanks to him, she had to give Ruby her biggest lie.

Not that she was responsible for her mothers death mind you. She lied to the sweet innocent girl before her and told her she wouldn't have killed her mother under the conditions she gave her. Ruby was right about her from the beginning. She hated everything that inspired hope for the world after what she's been through, everything they seemingly do in a place like this. She hated the Hunters, Ozpin, and Ruby's mother was no exception. And just as she feared, her heart ached from this one true lie.

She would've killed her mother no matter the conditions of that night, whether or not she knew the small girl in the mother's arms would've been Ruby... at least, she thinks she would ha-

Salem quickly shook the thoughts out of her head. Right now the last thing she wanted was to be seen with the sniffling girl crying into her shoulders, a fact that would've been a bit harder for anyone else to come across to since they were nearly a good mile out from her domain by now. "Now, Ruby," Salem spoke up again as she rose to her feet, "I want to show you the surprise I had up ahead. I think you might like it." Ruby nodded to her as she wiped away the rest of her tears, taking her hand once more as she walked by her side.

The side of someone she trusted.

"What is it?"

...

...

"Ruby?"

"Gah!" Ruby yelped with a jump, suddenly falling backwards in her chair and landing with an audible thud. "Ow..."

The scene was becoming a norm for the Cat Faunus known as Blake, the girl scratching her chin feeling somewhat embarrassed for the leader of Team RBPN, one she was just fine with all the same.

With her schedule, things usually had a certain order to how the weekends would go. She would get up, look around, get dressed, then look around for Ruby until she found her dozing off in the library herself. At first she was nearly terrified when Ruby suddenly went missing the first time she disappeared, and nowadays she couldn't find her anywhere else except for the library during the weekends. She couldn't understand why the girl was so devoted to the library studies either.

Sure, she was the team leader. Everything she did was reflected upon the rest of them twice as much than anything the rest of them did. Considering half the team consisted of two very energetic girls, that was saying a lot. And it was no surprise that school bored her to no end. Most of the time she knew of Ruby's early life, she was always happy and easily excited, playing with her sister and mother more times in the week than not, only having a tutor she knew about for a year or two for two days of the week at most. Other than that, she spent most of her time just having fun and playing around on a daily basis.

But here, she was something else. She was determined, focused, still entirely full of energy and very energetic, and constantly reading about the school, and if there was ever any doubt, the latest two-foot textbook in front of her told her otherwise.

"Why do you keep reading about Beacon?" Blake asked, skimming the numerous pages of the large book.

"Ugh, I'm just... curious..." Ruby mumbled, slouching on the book once more.

"Curious?" Strange. Most of the replies she ever got from Ruby about what she was doing always resulted in such descriptive words, all related to the word "curiosity". Why was she so curious about this place? It was just a simple academy, nothing more, nothing less. Did she want to know something specific about this place? Was there some secret about this place that she didn't tell her about? Better yet, why not just ask Ozpin about this place? Or did she not want Ozpin to know about her snooping. Slowly but surely, a small, simple, smirk began growing on Blake's face as she turned to a map presented in the book, covering both pages as it showed the outline of the entire academy. "Oooohhhh... now I get it..."

"Get what?" Ruby asked after a yawn, blinking herself awake for the morning.

"I get what's going on here. You're looking for something." The announcement snapped Ruby wide awake along with her eyes, a sense of panic growing in the back of her mind.

"W-What!?" The look on her face made Blake's grin widen, looking at the younger girl expectantly. "N-No I'm not!"

"Heh, Ruby, you can't lie to me." She knew Ruby. Ruby knew Blake. And she feared the Faunus as she slowly walked closer to her, face never losing an ounce of attention. "I know exactly what you're doing..."

"Y-You do?"

This was bad. No, scratch that. This was beyond bad! How did Blake find out? She was so careful with everything she did! She always played the part of a natural school girl, at least as natural as she could be, always seeming normal and behaving normal every day, and only keeping her sneaking habits to a single hour each and every night when everyone was asleep! That was the best way for her to avoid suspicion, and in case one of her friends or anyone else who knew her discovered her walking about, she could give the simple explanation that she went out for a nightly stroll, unable to fall asleep.

And this was exactly the reason why! She couldn't afford to let anyone find out about what she was doing, especially Blake! If they found out, that made them an indefinite liability, and while she herself probably couldn't bring herself to rid of a liability at this point, there was no telling what anyone else of her family could and most likely would do! All she could do was gulp at this rate, fearing whatever revelation Blake was about to lay upon her.

"Of course I do..." Whatever fear and tension Ruby felt building up instantly dwindled as Blake playfully noogied her head lightly. "You goof. You're still the same little Ruby I grew up with, exploring places and trying to find treasure that isn't there."

"T-Treasure...?" Oh thank god. She finally found a great fountain of relief washing over her as she found the key to getting the both of them out of this mess. "Oh... Ha, whew, yeah, I guess you caught me."

It actually wasn't that surprising, come to think of it. The announcement brought back many different memories from when Blake and Ruby were still kids, probably around five years old at the time when Blake was still seven. Whenever they had the opportunity when Neo was the one watching over them, they would often use their imaginations to pretend they were pirates or famous adventurers, exploring the entirety of the Penthouse's building from top to bottom trying to find secret treasure. Naturally, this resulted in many complaints from several disturbed apartment guests who wanted an explanation as to why kids were suddenly storming their rooms trying to find buried treasures, none of them realizing the kids belonged to the penthouse owners until they arrived later.

"You really haven't changed bit." Blake looked over the map pages of Beacon. It was pretty detailed, depicting just about every nook and cranny of the building from top to bottom, displaying it's various rooms, structures, and facilities, as well as details pertaining to when the rooms were made and for what purposes. "So what are you looking for?"

"Umm... w-well honestly, anything at this point." Ruby replied, slouching over the book again. "I mean I don't really expect much at this point, but I just can't shake the feeling there's something around here that's staring right back at me!"

"Really?" Blake rubbed her chin as she glossed over the many details. It just took her a few seconds to come to a conclusion. "Well, why not think back to the movies?"

"Movies?"

"Yeah, remember? Back when we were kids, we watched so many spy movies and adventure movies with people trying to find secret, buried, treasure, remember?" She reminded. "And where did those treasures usually tend to be?"

"Well," Ruby looked over the pages closely, "usually they would either be at the top of a castle or the bottom of a temple. But I've looked everywhere around here, and the lowest part of the school is just some janitorial and plumbing facility."

"Well just think deeper then." She suggested with a smile. For some reason those words actually brought her mind to focus.

"Think... deeper?"

"Yeah. Remember back in those spy movies and stuff? There was always a secret area inside of those places that weren't placed on the maps. And the secret access to enter those places always came from..." She trailed off, slowly tracing her finger to one particular portion of the picture.

"The elevator."

All of reality dawned on Ruby at once.

Of course!

How did she not see it sooner!

She knew it wasn't going to be labeled on the map, that was just a given for a facility. What she hadn't accounted for was the possibility of a secret hi-tech entrance, one so simple yet complex that she wouldn't have even given it a second thought! Elevators could easily be programmed to do any number of things, which includes secretly accessing hidden parts of a security building, as well as hiding accessible panels and buttons from the public. Just because there wasn't a simple button saying "Maiden Floor" or anything didn't mean there wasn't a floor in which it existed!

To think her beloved self-proclaimed-sister, the one who's been watching her back ever since they met, would be the very person to assist her in this endeavor. What took Ruby several months to realize, Blake managed to find out in just a few short minutes. It was times like this she wished she did bring Blake into the loop. Everything could've been so much easier for the young girl if she ever asked for her help to begin with.

Yet, she still knew that would've made her life all the more stressful too.

"The eleva- Blake it's the elevator!" She jumped for joy, practically throwing herself in Blake's arms.

"Heh, Ruby, calm down, it's just pretend." Yup. This was definitely the sea Ruby she knew. "I mean it's not like there's actually any secrets to this place."

"Oh, right... heh, sorry I guess I got carried away..." She apologized scratching the back of her head with embarrassment. "By the way, what are you here for?"

"What am I here for? For you ya goofball."

"For me?" Now what did she forget?

"Yeah, remember? We're going out to the city today with everyone." Ruby silently opened her mouth and let out a silent "oh" before closing it.

"Oh yeah... L-Let's go." She wasted no time to take off, pulling Blake right behind her.

It was nice knowing her. It was nice knowing everything about this place, about the questionable friends she made up to this point. Looking back on it, there were some fun moments that she really did enjoy. She enjoyed many of the laughs they had in the past, all the fun and interesting people she got to meet, and she enjoyed punching the face or kicking the shin of one or two bullies in particular. She could definitely tell she made a different in this school as the amount of bullying decreased ever since her match with Cardin. And she would always have those precious memories of hers.

And they would only be just that. Memories. After today, she as going to throw all that away. She was going to do at least one simple decent thing for the rest of her friends, most importantly Blake, before she left. She was going to join them on a simple day of fun, exploring the city and many of it's delights. She was going to play the role of the innocent-seeming student one more time just to make sure her friends, if no one other than Blake, could have one last good memory together.

Because after today, that was it.

There wasn't going to be any more parties or surprises. There wasn't going to be any more days of fun or excitement. Because after today, it was all over. She would no longer be a student, a Huntress like the rest of them. She was going to have to throw away everything she worked hard towards and leave it all behind.

Because after today, she was going to find the Maiden.

And she was going to kill her.

...

...

...

 ** _A/N: *yawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwn* Have I mentioned I'm TIRED yet T_T...*yawn*. Hope this was another fun chapter guys. I apologize if some of it feels more rushed than the rest, just know that I was kinda out of the loop in some portions to this than my previous chapters, and even as we speak these words are literally spinning in front of me so I have no idea how buzzed i am right now from tiredness XP._**

 ** _With that said, hope you enjoyed it, cause we're a few episodes away from the finale of Volume 1 ^^! Leave a like, fav, follow, and review if you enjoyed and hope to see you soon!_**

 ** _(PS: also I totally love my last reviewer's post for completely missing the mark XP clearly I'm not the only one tired here...)_**


	43. Volume 1 Episode 15: The Lonely Stray

_**A/N: Annnd hooftah, what a rush ^^ I don't mean I rushed the fic (entirely) just the rush I get from posting so many episodes and with a nice length in under a day ^^ we got ourselves a nice 8.5k which I'm pretty proud of.**_

 _ **I'd like to add a little something about the future Valentine's Day special contest. Aside from anything I mentioned earlier, I will make one additional category if it helps people come up with fanfic ideas for a one-shot (more = more points ^^). If it helps, let it contain fluff ^^ No, NOT THAT KIND OF FLUFF, the cutesy loveydovey kind, kinda like I had with my first dozen or so chapters with all it's cuteness ^^ if it helps you guys come up with chapter ideas, come up with something with that! You may still do it the other ways I mentioned if it helps. The only rule you need to stick by is that it needs to be a minimum of 3k words, needs to take place within this fanfic's universe (refer to Sani2431's post for an idea of what I mean), and posted by February 14th, which I assume is valentine's day- you don't need it to be on then, just whenever you finish. Earlier posts = more points, and the winner gets their own bonus episode!**_

 _ **Now, on with the show!**_

 _ **...**_

 _ **...**_

 _ **...**_

 ** _~This will be the day we waited for~_**

 _Cinder and salem are seen standing on a balcony on the side of the latter's home looking out in the distance to where Vale would be. As they look up to a Nevermore flying overhead, the camera pans up as well, showing an orange sky that slowly turns blue._

 ** _~This will be the day we open up the door~_**

 _Returning back down from its view of the sky, we see Ruby opening the door to Beacon's main hall, Wolfie peaking out behind her, Blake standing next to her, oblivious to the Grimm's presence._

 ** _~I don't wanna hear your absolution~_**

 _The Camera 'flies' through the hallways until it settles on Ozpin going through illegible notes on his scroll next to a photo of young miss Fall._

 ** _~Hope your ready for a revolution~_**

 _Outside his window, WYJR can be seen standing together. As the screen is overtaken by a storm of white petals, Weiss pushes Jaune a bit away._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of new solutions~_**

 _One of the petals remain before a black background and is revealed to be Ruby as she pulls out [insert weapon name] and starts twirling her Scythe around, leaving a burning crimson Halo above herself._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of blood evolution~_**

 _The red halo turns into Wolfie's red Iris as the camera zooms out revealing the pool of blood beneath the Grimm. before he dissolves into a shadow and to the side._

 ** _~In time your heart will open minds~_**

 _The shadow flows beneath Ruby cloak who is standing with her team, a conflicted expression on her face. Soon though it is replaced with a look of determination as the Camera pans once more._

 ** _~A Story will be told~_**

 _When the camera settles on Ruby's viewpoint we see Amber kneeling before Cinder, before the camera zooms back and her surroundings turn into the vault beneath Beacon._

 ** _~And Victory is in a Simple Soul~_**

 _We see a final shot of a young Ruby hugging her family, which reveals itself to be an old picture in Salem's Hand who is enjoying tea served by Neo._

"Wow..." Ruby's eyes lit up as she drew closer. "What is it?"

There was nothing that could be said to explain what Ruby was looking at. In front of her stood one of the many mysterious things inhabiting Salem's domain, her grandmother leading her to this one nearly a mile outside of her palace. All throughout the walk between her palace to this place, Ruby saw many interesting and amazing sights. To most people, it would've looked like a dark, dreary, depressing place, somewhere even darkness would fear. To a child who spent most of her life within walls though, this was a garden of beauty, especially thanks to the colorful red sky and the purple crystals that littered the ground.

Now she was within the presence of her grandmother's special surprise, a mysterious pool of darkness from which a black ooze continued to seep into.

"Just give it a moment and see if you can find out." Salem said with an expectant grin. Letting go of her hand the young pre-teen walked over to the small pool, growing more curious by the second. What was this stuff? Poison? Some strange dark water that granted superpowers? The solution to everlasting immortality? There was so many things to choose from! And Ruby was given the honor of being lead to one of these things herself by her dear sweet grandmother! Who knew what wonderful things were about to be revealed before her-!

 ***Grrrrrrrrrrr***

"Ah!" Ruby yelped as she fell back, being greeted by the glare of glowing red eyes following the sound of a monstrous roar. Salem couldn't help but cover her mouth, chuckling silently at her granddaughter's reaction and surprised face.

It was the face of a Grimm that greeted Ruby as it slowly made it's way out of the pool of darkness. It rose slowly and without hesitation as it came from the endless pool, examining the new world around it as it was given life from the world around it. Thankfully for Ruby's sake, Salem's presence almost dominated it's will immediately, it's first set of orders being to obey, and not harm the child in front of it. Compared to most people who would've been absolutely terrified at the sight of a monstrous creature, an Ursa at that, forming right in front of it, Ruby could only stare at it in wonder, happily welcoming it into the new world as it walked past the young girl and it's new master, returning to the castle where it knew it belonged.

It was at this sight that Ruby finally understood the purpose of the dark pool before her.

"This is were the Grimm are born!" She realized with excitement.

"Yes. It is from these pools that the Grimm are born from, and it is from here my army is made." Salem said, kneeling down to the girl's side as she looked into the pool.

"Wow... so they all come from this spot?"

"Not exactly, dear. This is but one of many pools scattered across the world. It would be a bit tricky spreading them all throughout the world otherwise." She explained. That made some sense to the young girl. It would be hard to spread these Grimm across the world if they all came from this one exact spot, wouldn't it?

"Cool! How many of these things are there?"

"At this point, it's quite hard for me to say." That was a first. She was always so gifted with her knowledge and lessons when it came to the Grimm. Hearing her saying anything close to not knowing something was almost shocking to hear. "I've spent a long portion of my life within this place, Ruby. Grimm withholding, I've had little means of communicating or interacting with the world around us. I don't remember the last time I ever left this place."

"Except for the Christmas you spent with us." Ruby cheekily reminded, earning a small smile from the leader of Grimm.

That was something Ruby could find relatable to the semi-motherly figure herself. Much like Salem, Ruby has had very little interaction with the outside world, save for any time she spent with Blake when she was younger. Even by those standards, she rarely ever went out on her own back when she lived with her mother, understanding that Cinder was just very protective of her and worried of her discovery. At this point, Ruby herself feared anyone ever recognizing her, knowing how they might take her away from her new family and the people she came to love.

It was something that took Ruby several months of living here to realize, previously assuming this was all punishment or anger her mother had towards her for running away when she turned ten. Until she realized it herself, she spent nearly a week filled with sadness and regret, always wondering how angry she made her mother to make her practically abandon her in this place. It was thanks to the constant company and support of her dear older sister that she came to understand the purpose behind all this, and how dearly her mother truly loved her.

"And," Salem continued, "it has one more special quality to it." At this, the young girl watched as she slowly lowered her hand to the pool, stopping once the strange black liquid brushed against the tip of her fingers. Closing her eyes as Ruby watched, she concentrated as she worked her own magic, Ruby continuing to wonder what her granny was attempting to do. After a mere ten seconds of waiting, Ruby's attention shifted to the pool itself as a strange bubbling suddenly began erupting around Salem's fingertips, at which point Salem dipped the rest of her hand into the pool itself.

What on Remnant was she doing? Was it safe to dip her hands into the pool to begin with? She had some understanding of her granny's power, knowing the woman could control the Grimm as long as she was aware of their presence. But what about when they were still being born? Could she still command the Grimm before they were actually born? Better yet, did her grandmother even know when a Grimm was born or how long between pauses it took for a Grimm to rise from the pool? The worry came from the fact a Grimm could possibly attack her before her grandmother was aware of their existence. She couldn't even tell if they refrained from attacking her from the moment they met her, or if Salem needed to be aware of their presence first.

After another thirty seconds had past, Salem finally opened her eyes again as she slowly pulled her hand out of the pool, along with a strange glob of the black substance which slowly dripped from her hands. Ruby blinked in curiosity as she leaned a little closer to the substance as it started shaking. Slowly Ruby's face of curiosity changed from bewilderment to joy as a figure started to form from the strange substance, eventually forming into a small black bird that look like a tiny Nevermore.

"You can make Grimm too!" Ruby's squeal of surprise warmed Salem's heart again as she chuckled softly. This child's excitement was always a humorous thing to watch for the coldhearted woman.

"Squawk!" The tiny bird chirped, ruffling it's feathers as it shook off the remaining goo. Ruby giggled aloud as she accepted the tiny bird jumping from Salem's hand. The small bird tilted it's head in a jittery fashion, Ruby giggling louder as it pecked around her palm ticklishly.

This was amazing! Incredible! Her grandmother could command Grimm as well as create them! Ooh! What kind of Grimm could she make? Could she make more Wolfies? Could she make a Wolfie with wings? How about a Wolfie with wings! Then Wolfie could fly her through the sky like a bird! No wait, a Wolfie with three heads! Then her tongue-like kisses would tickle three times as much!

"So..." Salem's words caught Ruby's attention again, wondering what words her grandmother had to say to her. What she was about to offer her would fill Ruby with overflowing joy.

"Would you like to try it?"

...

...

The weekend, one of the most magical times of every child's life. Whether they be kid, teen, or near-adult, the weekend brought absolute fun for many people around the world. There were several unique things that the weekend always brought. One was, obviously, fun. The weekend was the time to go out and explore the world, see new places, meet many people! You could lounge it out in the sunny beaches, shop to your hearts content at the malls, or just spend a quiet evening at home and relax your troubles away until the weekdays start again.

The other fun thing to do was having vacations. Just because you were limited between two to three days worth of time off on a weekly basis didn't mean you couldn't go out and enjoy yourself to your leisure. Some vacations could be limited to just a few days worth and you would still feel fantastic for the experience! From sunny climates to memorable memorials, there was literally no end to the number of places you could visit, and as time went on, so to would the wonders of the world that would come and go.

It truly was always changing.

Above all weekend was just a means to relax. Sometimes you wouldn't get relaxation, but those would be fixed with the following weekends that were sure to follow. And on the off chance you still didn't feel relaxed... well you were kind of on your own. All in all, it was a time to simply have fun and enjoy what life had to offer. And on this particular outing, the eight friends found themselves being greeted to signs and banners being displayed all throughout the city of Vale, leaving a very happy impression on one particular Schnee girl.

"The Vytal Festival!" Weiss' eyes sparkled as she smiled. Among the eight friends she seemed to be the most excited, a sight that terrified several of the individuals.

"Jeez Weiss, I've never seen you smile so much..." Ruby could feel her skin creeping up on her as she hugged herself, the goosebumps giving her the chills. "It's kind of creepy..."

"Wanna know something creepier? This is the longest I've seen her smile since meeting her, and I've seen her sneeze and fart at the same time once." Yang commented with a slight joke. The small chuckle she earned from Ruby was enough for her.

She couldn't help it. Every time she came close to this girl, she felt a strange sense of familiarity. She couldn't describe it. There was just something about this young girl before her that made her want to protect her or to see her happy? Maybe it was just her big sister senses? Just because she didn't have a sister anymore didn't mean she couldn't be one to anyone else, and seeing how Ruby herself was without a sister, or at least an actual official sister unlike Blake, she took it upon herself to jump in for Ruby whenever the girl needed a good smile or had trouble, much like her irritation of whenever Cardin was around. It was the closest way she could feel herself as Ruby's actual big sister, even if she wasn't.

If only she knew.

"Would you quit making up stories, Yang?" Weiss huffed with a small blush. She may have sneezed once audibly, due to being caught in the middle of a bunch of chuckles, but she refuses to let rumors spread that she passed gas! Especially in public. "And why wouldn't I be smiling at a time like this? This entire festival is dedicated to dozens of cultures throughout the world!"

"Festival...?" Ruby questioned tilting her head. After spending so much time with the young innocence that was Ruby Fall, nothing about her curiosity to the everyday things of life surprised the rest of the group anymore, and a festival was no exception.

"It's pretty much just a big party thrown by the city." Blake explained as the friends continued to walk.

"There'll be parades and lots of food!" Nora cheered pumping her fists.

"As well as cultural esthetics such as dancing and festivities." Ren added.

"And most of all, the Vytal Tournament!" Jaune announced. Much like Weiss had at the start of their arrival, Ruby's eyes were next to light up.

"A tournament?!" She stammered, drool leaking from her mouth like a waterfall. Blake casually just pushed her jaw up to the top of her mouth, having done this several times since coming here.

Of all the times to find the Maiden's location, it had to be when there was a fun tournament on the horizon! It couldn't be when the academy was about to be destroyed, they couldn't wait until Ruby's secret was suddenly discovered and she had the entirety of Beacon on her tail. No, it just HAAAAD to be right before she found out that a tournament was on it's way to Vale, which she would most likely be vacant from once she completed her mission and killed the maiden.

"Oh yes, quite a big one in fact." Pyrrha explained as she nodded to the youngest member. "It's held every two years, and hosts numerous students from many different academies from the world over."

"You mean we get to fight students from across the world!?" Ruby stammered. Pyrrha was unaware of just how much she was torturing the seemingly-excited girl. Every single awesome thing she was stating only tortured Ruby more, knowing she would never be able to get to it after today. Maybe with enough begging she could find some way to postpone the maiden's death, which was very doubtful since she wanted to prove herself to her family anyway.

"Hmph, if you make it past the first round, you might." The tone in Weiss' voice sounded smug, a surprising difference compared to her usual persona. Ruby stared back at the increasingly smug look the rich girl was giving her, giving her her own confident look as she squeezed her fist.

"Is that a challenge I hear?" That was both a personal and honest question from Ruby. This was Weiss they were talking to after all, and if there's one thing Ruby grew accustomed to, it's that Weiss was no fun unless someone else invited her to do the stuff they did.

"I will admit it's a shame Pyrrha won't be sharing our victory Ruby, but if it's any consolation, I'll be sure to give you a pat on the back when our team wins." She gloated.

Of course. How could Ruby have forgotten, or the rest of them for that matter? One by one the members of Team RBPN and WYJR looked at one another with expectant faces, each one looking more excited than the last. Blake and Yang nodded to each other as the blonde crossed her arms, Pyrrha and Jaune looked back to each other in more of a playful manner, Nora just threw her arms around Ren with her natural grin, not letting the idea of becoming enemies get in the way of things at the present, and Ruby and Weiss looked to each other with a look of ever-growing determination.

This wasn't just going to pit the against various students from the schools across the world, this would pit themselves against the very friends they made with one another across Beacon. Friends would be come enemies, enemies would become Rivals, and there was no one Ruby looked forward to fighting more than Weiss Schnee herself, the girl that always prided herself around school as one of the elite members of society. Even if she actually was, there would be no greater satisfaction than wiping the smug look from her face.

Everything was exciting, everything was pleasant. If only this damn maiden wasn't looming over Ruby's mind!

Or the smell of fish as they neared the docks.

 _ ***Hrrrrrnnnnnggggg!***_

The previous combined with the oncoming sound of a ship horn going off caught everyone's attention, finally realizing they were all lead to the docks. Many faces turned to look at the endless ocean as one of the boats slowly pulled in, some faces with curiosity, others, namely Ruby's, with disgust at the smell.

"Blegh, it smells like fish." She mumbled plugging her nose. She didn't need to look to tell Blake was drooling herself now at, what was to her, a pleasant scent. Knowing her the smell of fish was driving her crazy while she kept her desire of fish to herself.

"I've heard that students from Vacuo would finally be arriving by ship today." Weiss said as she lead the group closer to the bay. "And as a representative of Beacon I feel as though it's my solemn duty to welcome them to this fine kingdom."

"In other words she wants to spy on them to get the upper hand." Yang clarified rolling her eyes.

"You can't prove that!" This earned her another grumble from the leader of team WYJR, annoyed that she'd continue to make another joke just for the sake of amusing one or two students.

"Why would she need to prove it if it's not true, Weiss?" Ruby teased. This was followed by several bouts of chuckles from the members of both teams, causing Weiss' face to flush as she turned away.

"Heheheheh..."

Yeah, this was nice.

Just Ruby, her fellow team, her friends, all bunched together like a big ol' happy family. Looking back on it, she guessed not all Hunters were bad, at least not the ones training to become Hunters. Maybe they were innocent people being tricked into becoming what they were? Maybe she could find a way to convince them all to turn away from their evil paths and save them before it was too late? Who knows, Salem wouldn't mind a few more helping hands in the world after all, and her friends turning their back on Ozpin would definitely make a great first impression on her!

At the very least, she could try to convince Blake of all people to turn away from her ideals. She needed to convince her most of all that the Hunters were evil before she left the academy, once she managed to kill the Fall Maiden. She was the one person she hoped to save out of everybody around here.

"Heh heh...Whoa." Ruby's giggling came to an abrupt halt as she suddenly froze in place.

"Ruby?" Nora paused looking in the direction she was facing. Each of their friends came to the same act as their attentions were drawn to the end of the street.

It was like any scene to be expected. The road was bustling with numerous faces walking about as they, along with the group of friends, all walked along the road to the center of the gathering. At the very end of the street, along with the curious citizens that surrounded it, was the scene of a crime. Right at the end of the road they could see several policemen and detectives as they tried to keep the people from getting too close to the scene for their own safety and to preserve the crime scene.

Ruby the only one of group to walk the slowest to the scene. It didn't surprise her in any shape or form at what was ahead. Just from the several yards she was at, she could already hear the talks and gossip amongst the detectives going on about another Dust Shop that was hit. As expected, she heard the usual lines of dialogue, such as "they didn't take the money", and "why did they only take the dust?" and the many variances that went along with them. There was nobody else capable of such a crime except her favorite uncle, Roman Torchwick.

Actually come to think of it, she wondered how he was doing. Out of the many weekly updates she's discussed with her mother, the one thing she's never asked her about was how Roman himself was doing, other than the brief apology she made to him for burning his favorite hat in the staged fight that started all this. He was pretty miffed about it, but was quick to ease up on her considering the plan worked out so well despite not knowing the full details of everything after.

And it's not like she didn't want to tell him everything that was going on either, far from it! She wanted nothing more than to bring him into the loop, at least as far as Neo was, and tell him everything about the maidens and the Hunters and everything else about Beacon too. Sadly Salem told her against such an idea, stating how she wanted him to prove himself first to her even after all he's to help support Cinder's cause till now. And she couldn't blame her for being so suspicious of people, given her line of work and her appearance.

Then again she wasn't too amused when Cinder recounted the story of when Ruby got lost in the city thanks to Roman's carelessness, so maybe there was some personal factor to it too.

"That's the sixth Dust shop this month alone." One of the detectives sighed. Once again a Dust shop had been hit, and there was no amount of evidence to point them in the right direction.

"Excuse me, Officer?" Ren spoke as he approached one of the officers. "What exactly happened here?"

"Pretty much what you see." He replied looking back to the scene. "Another robbery. The robbers basically hit the place and dashed before anyone could show up."

"Don't you have security footage of who did it?" Jaune asked looking around.

"That was the first thing we checked. Unfortunately we found the cameras pretty much fried up, not that it matters much."

"What makes you say that?" Pyrrha wondered.

"We're pretty sure this was done by the White Fang, those guys have been spotted hitting up shops recently." The detective stated. "We're not equipped to deal with something that big, not with our pay." As the detectives walked off for further investigation, Weiss approached the scene with a look of disgust on her face.

"Hmph, White Fang. What an awful bunch of degenerates." She grumbled. Almost immediately a look of worry crossed Ruby's face as she saw Blake ready to respond.

"What's your problem?!" Blake instantly snapped back, walking up to her.

"Uh oh..." Ruby gulped. This was bad. The many weeks the two slowly spent getting used to each other was about to be undone by one simple event.

"My problem?" Weiss scoffed. "I simply don't care for the criminally insane!"

"Criminally insane? The White Fang aren't a bunch of psychopaths as you make them out to be." Blake growled. "They're just misguided right now, they're not as dangerous as you think."

"Oh, right, and the giant hole in the wall of this dust shop clearly shows sanity on their part!" She retorted rolling her eyes.

"Whoa whoa whoa, hey guys, let's just calm down for a second." Yang tried to intervene as she moved between them.

"Yeah, let's just go back to the docks or something and have fun." Nora agreed trying to diffuse the situation. Sadly neither of their attempts were met with credible results.

"Blasting a hole in wall doesn't make them insane, just a little... unethical." Blake continued to argue as she crossed her arms.

"Oh, yeah, right. Unethical, how could I forget?" Weiss mocked rolling her eyes. "This isn't them on a bad day, this is just them taking their stress out on public property."

"Neither argument explains why the Faunus would rob a dust shop." Ren pointed out, rubbing his chin trying to think.

"Who cares about the reason? That doesn't change the fact that the White Fang are still scum! They're nothing but a bunch of crooked Faunus who only know how to cheat, lie, and steal!" As opposed to another of Ruby's team, Yang was the one to turn back this time, a little put off with Weiss' wording.

"That's... not necessarily true..."

"Hey! Stop that Faunus!" As if to prove to the world on the contrary, the cries of help were rung through everybody within earshot as the eight friends turned to the dock. None of them hesitated to run towards the fences surrounding the roads near the ocean as they watched the scene unfold.

To their surprise, or not given the recent debate, they were all witnesses to the sight of a strange Faunus running across the side of a ship being chased by several of the ship's crew who tried to apprehend the stowaway. The Faunus was a strange teen with golden blonde hair with a similar colored tail, apparently being a form of monkey Faunus, who simply grinned back with a cheeky smile as he watched the slow shipmates' pitiful attempts at capturing him.

"Thanks for the ride guys! Hehe." He teased, wasting no time to jump from the ship just as the crew reached him. He barely cared for the dilemma he caused for himself as he took no more than five yards worth of feet ahead of him, perching himself upon a nearby streetlamp and hanging from his tail as he began peeling a banana.

"You no-good stowaway!" Another of the ships crew shouted as they tried running off the ship to give chase.

"Hey, a no-good stowaway would've been caught! I'm a great stowaway." He taunted as he ate. His meal was rudely interrupted as he dodged his head to the side of an incoming rock. Surprisingly, the detectives from earlier caught wind of the Faunus' no-good deeds, blocking the way further up the docks as they looked up to him.

"Hey! Get down from there this instant!" The Shades ordered. Like any model citizen of the law the Faunus responded appropriately, casually tossing the discarded banana peel right at his face. He paid no mind to the grumbling detective as he leapt gracefully from the streetlamp right over the two detectives, quickly dashing up the stairs and passed the curious group of friends as he ran past them all. For a mere moment, time seemed to slow down for Blake as she caught sight of the Faunus' face, the teen giving her a strange wink before running right past her.

This had been the strangest of days to say the least.

"...Well, there goes the competition." Pyrrha commented. She had no idea if she should be curious about the mysterious stowaway or troubled that a potential criminal is running within the city.

'Ergh... Come on! We have to chase after him!" Weiss declared running after him. With the rest of her team running after her, Nora and Pyrrha gave a small shrug to each other before giving chase as well. The only two left behind from all of this were Ruby and Blake, the latter of whom were crossing their arms with a frown.

"Blake...?" Ruby didn't know what to say.

The White Fang meant everything to Blake, and Weiss' backlashing about them just now definitely didn't help any of her nerves. Since she was born, Blake became a member of the White Fang that her own parents started, something of a similarity the two shared. She wanted to uphold her family line, back when she was a member anyway, and do everything she could to fight for Faunus rights everywhere. In a way, she's always been fighting for her life and the lives of others, ever since she was born!

Maybe that's another reason she always looked up to Blake, just now realizing it herself. She was always putting others first, always trying to make her family proud, and never turned away from the path she once chose until recently. She upheld her family's name and did what she could to be a proud member of the White Fang until they turned into the corrupt monsters the people were seeing them as right this moment. To have that amount of sorrow and despair rising up on you, to think that what you were born into was being broken apart against your will. She couldn't begin to comprehend the torment this was filling Blake with, only being able to wonder what sort of thoughts were swimming in the mind of the former-White Fang member.

"Blake?" She called out again, walking to her side. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm... I'm fine Ruby..." She mumbled leaning over the railings of the road.

"You don't look it." They could've spent no time with each other int he past and Ruby would still be able to know what was on her mind. The young teen leaned against the rail herself, wind gently blowing against her cape. "You're thinking of the White Fang, aren't you?"

"Huff, Ruby..." This was beyond bad. She couldn't even look at Ruby as she spoke, a rare occurrence that hasn't occurred since... then... "I don't... I don't know what to do these days."

"Well just smile and try to solve it." Ruby tried to encourage giving a small smile. "We can fix this problem together! Hey, why don't we ask Nora and Pyrrha to help us? They're our friends now, I'm sure they'll understand if we talk! After all, they don't know anything from either of our pasts." Now Blake was fortunate she was turned away from Ruby, otherwise she would've displayed the look of shock and somewhat regret on her face.

"Uhh y-yeah, I know that, but..." She sighed deeply. If her ears weren't tied in her ribbon right now, she'd easily display just how troubled she was. "There's just some things I can't get involved with."

"What does that have to do with today's robbery?"

"Excuse me." A voice spoke up from behind the duo. The two were caught by surprised at the sight of the young-looking girl behind her. She seemed pretty nice if the outfit was anything to be considered, with a light grey colored overalls with a pair of matching black stalkings. She seemed to be in a perky mood too, greeting the two with a calm and simple smile and a wave, brightening her orange hairdo. "Salutations!"

"Um... Hello?" Ruby greeted back questionably. It was hard to say how you should greet someone who comes out of nowhere in the middle of a conversation.

"Good day!" She quickly replied in an even perkier tone. "Have either of you seen Grimm around here?" A simple eight word question was enough to send panics down Ruby and Blake's spin.

"A-A w-wh-what?" Blake stuttered nervously. Luckily the nervousness seemed to pass off as simple fear to the ginger-haired girl, giving her a pleasing smile and a light bow.

"No need to be worried," she assured, "I have not heard reports yet stating that there was a Grimm in the vicinity of Vale."

"T-Then why would you think there's a Grimm around here m-miss uhh... um... What was your name again?" Ruby asked.

"My name is Penny. Penny Polendina. It's a pleasure to meet you both!" She replied again. No amount of words seemed to affect this girl in any sort of way. Every reaction she had was set to "happy". At least until she gazed at Ruby further. "As for your further question, I have a distinct feeling that there is a Grimm somewhere nearby. Presumably right where your standing in fact." Without even giving Ruby a chance she gently pushed the girl to the side as she looked at where Ruby stood. She only gazed at it for three whole seconds before looking where Ruby was standing now. "Now I believe there's a Grimm over there."

If there was a word to describe something worse than bad Ruby needed it right now because the hooded girl's attempt to back away slowly only made things worse. With each step she took, Penny's eyes followed along exactly one second immediately after. How was she supposed to respond in this situation? Some strange girl just drops in on them out of nowhere and can apparently detect Grimm! There weren't any words that could simplify "I can summon a Grimm from out of my shadow" that would keep the attention off of them.

"Blaaake, help me out here..." Ruby peeped. To make matters worse, the minuscule cry of help was all it took to further Penny's inquiries.

"Do you require assistance fellow stranger person?" Penny asked politely.

"What? No, not at all!" Ruby waved her hands frantically. "I-In fact, I think I saw a Grimm running several miles in that direction!" She quickly lied pointing away. If there was ever a time she needed a lie to work, now was one of those times.

It didn't.

"But I am almost certain that there is a Grimm not too far from-"

"Ruby?" The sound of Pyrrha's familiar voice brought too much relief to the young girl as the three saw the group coming back. Some of them had annoyed expressions on their faces, the results of their attempted capture being presented as such.

"Oh thank god- I mean hi Pyrrha!" Ruby quickly dashed to her side via her semblance, nonchalantly hiding behind her a little as Pyrrha saw the concerned smile on Ruby's face. "Pyrrha, I'd like you to meet my spontaneous friend Penny. For some reason she can sense Grimm!"

"Spontaneous fr... Oooh!" Pyrrha's eyes lit up, followed by Nora's, as the two realized what she just said. Surprisingly enough this was the first sentence to be said by anyone to change Penny's expression from eager happiness to head-tilting curiosity.

"Friend?"

"Heeeey Penny!" Nora nervous approached the girl from behind, trying to distract her. "How's your day been?" As she tried to distract the mysterious girl, Pyrrha and Ruby slowly inched themselves backwards, hoping to separate a good dozen feet away from the girl until Ruby could semblance herself away from the Grimm-trackable girl. The last thing anyone needed, at all, was for the presence of Ruby's Grimm to be known to the general public. Having it discovered in the Academy would've been bad enough. Place that discovery within the confines of the city and there was no end to the trouble that could cause! Thankfully Lady Luck proved to be in their favor as Nora's distraction proved sufficient enough to spread some distance. Just a few more feet and Ruby would be home free!

"Hey Rubes!" Thus, by the sound of Yang's greeting as the two backed into her, did Ruby realize there was no Lady Luck. If there was, then she definitely didn't like Ruby. "What's going on?"

"Forget that, where's the Faunus?" Blake asked as the remainder of Weiss' team approached. Unbeknownst to Ruby, the question wasn't a form of distraction meant to help her best friend. Her concern was solely focused on the fellow Faunus who was still in trouble.

"Hey guys, what's-" Jaune was cut off from his greeting as he noticed the new girl amongst their group. "Umm... hello. So guys, any idea where the Faunus went?"

"You didn't catch him?" Blake felt some relief to this outcome, not that Weiss' words were helping.

"Of course we didn't catch him!" Weiss yelped. "How can you expect to catch such a filthy degenerate anyway?"

"Quit calling him a degenerate!" Blake yelled. As the two began to bicker, the numerous eyes being drawn to them, Ruby was quickly caught off guard as she yelped, noticing Penny's out-of-nowhere appearance as she spoke right next to her.

"Fellow Ruby Rubes," Penny incorrectly identified, "what did you call me earlier?"

"Huh?" Unless it was anything fear-related Ruby didn't have a clue.

"What you called me when your friend came about. What did you call me?"

"Call y- Oh, that! I-I said friend." She replied nervously. The sooner she could finish any and all conversations with this girl the better.

"Friend? Did you say we were friends?" Her glass-like eyes shimmered with interest. Yang couldn't help but fawn over the scene.

"Aww isn't that cute, Rubes? You made a friend!" She chuckled.

"Really? Truly? Are we really friends?!" Penny lit up holding Ruby's hand with excitement. Given the options, Ruby decided to pick the lesser of two evils that would get her in trouble. Anything more this girl could throw at her would ruin any chance she had of finding the maiden by tomorrow.

"U-Ummm if you promise stop with the whole sensing-Grimm thing then you have a deal!" Ruby squeaked. She wasn't in any state to be cutting deals, but if this Penny was as unbalanced as she appeared to be then she needed to cut any break she could get!

The first one to react this offer actually came from Yang as she looked at the young with confusion, Ruby never realizing she spoke out loud. "Grimm thing?" At the same time, Ruby could've sworn Penny's eyes glowed Green for a split-second as immediately following this, the soul-piercing gaze she once felt was lifted from the young girl.

"Sensational!" Penny cheered triumphantly. This was a dream come true! A friend! An honest-to-goodness friend! Oh what fun this was going to be! "We can paint our nails, and try on new clothes, and talk about cute boys! Oh we'll have so much fun!"

 _What on Remnant was this girl?_ These thoughts of horror and terror were interrupted at the increasing volume of Weiss' and Blake's argument. Whatever they were discussing was reaching it's breaking point because they were both now mere inches from each other's face.

"He's not a filthy Faunus, he's a person!" Blake shouted angrily.

"Faunus' aren't people, they're animals, especially the White Fang!" Weiss snapped back. She usually wouldn't show such prejudices like this, much less in public, but the debate between a Faunus compared to a no-good Faunus was getting on her nerves. "Would you prefer if I stopped referring to this trashcan as a trashcan? Or this lamppost as a lamppost?"

"I said stop it!" The group of friends nearly jumped as Blake grabbed Weiss by the collar of her shirt. Weiss herself didn't let any of this get to her as she returned the same treatment, grabbing Blake's own clothing by the black collar of her undershirt.

"Whoa guys, calm down!" Jaune panicked. "J-Just cool down for a moment-"

"And give the Faunus enough time and he surely end up joining the ranks of those White Fang scumbags!" Weiss yelled, both girls completely ignoring Jaune.

"Ghhh you ignorant little BRAT!" Blake growled nearly throwing Weiss off her feet as she pushed her away. She gruffed at the young Schnee as she turned to walk away, but Weiss refused to give her any sense of peace.

"How dare you treat me like that! I am a team leader!" She reminded. None of their friends were brave enough to intervene at this point. If any of them did, it would only end violently.

"You're a judgmental little brat is what you are." Blake hissed.

"I think we should go..." Yang whispered to the younger leader.

"The mere fact you would sort that Faunus boy with a terrorist group makes you just as much a scoundrel as you believe him to be."

"So you admit that the White Fang **is** just a radical group of terrorists!"

"That's not what I meant and you know it!"

By now the remaining students of both teams were being tortured by the never-ending debate that was Weiss and Blake. At the present the sun had gone down, yet the friends of both teams found themselves stuck in the exact same location with both Weiss and Blake still barking at one another like group of dogs. Both teams were tired and both teams wanted to go back to Beacon, Nora's snoring state as she leaned against Ren's shoulder was proof of that. The rest of the crew were either leaning against the rails along the road or sitting against it, still waiting for the conversation to come to an end and trying to stay awake.

They couldn't risk bringing this debate to Beacon and keeping everyone else in the school up, and any attempts to break it apart non-forcefully were met with hisses and angry glares from the two shouting girls. The only thing they could do at this point was to wait and pray something brought an end to this conversation, hopefully soon. The only one not showing any signs of tiredness were from the mysterious Penny girl, the girl trying to make any and all conversation with Ruby to pass the time.

"You realize you're defending a an organization that hates humanity, don't you?" Weiss pointed out, pacing back and forth in front of Blake as both girls glared at each other. "The Faunus of the White Fang are pure evil!"

"There's no such thing as pure evil!" Blake was at a cross. She was at a cross between maintaining her composure and attacking Weiss, something that was telling her to lean towards the latter. "Why do you think they hate humanity so much! It's because of people like Cardin, like YOU, who force the White Fang to take drastic measures in the first place!"

"People like me?"

"You're discriminatory!" That line of shouting popped the snot bubble as Nora jumped awake, groaning at the sight of the conversation having yet to cease.

"Is it done yeeeet?" She groaned. Ren just patted her head casually, not taking his eyes off the scene.

"Just go back to bed Nora." As he wished it, so it was, Nora falling to sleep immediately with the snot bubble regrowing.

"I'm a victim!" Weiss yelled.

"How are you the victim?!" This was going from being too much to being too doubtful. Blake was almost amused at what sort of desperation she was about to unveil, anything she was going to use to win some ounce of sympathy.

"You want to know why I don't trust the White Fang? Why I don't particularly trust the Faunus?" She paused briefly as a scowl grew on her face, looking up to the broken moon as she turned her back to her. "It's because they've been at war with my family for years. My grandfather's company has had a target painted on its back for as long as I can remember, before I was even born. And ever since I was a child, I've watched family friends disappear, board members executed, an entire train car full of dust... stolen. And everyday, my father would come home furious, and that made for a very, difficult childhood." Out of the group, it was Ruby who mustered the courage to walk over to her fellow friend, noticing the distress emanating from the young Schnee.

"Weiss, I-" And was just as quickly cut off with the slap to her wrist, the young girl rubbing it sorely from the sting.

The sight of anyone attacking her friends finally drove her.

"So you want to know why I despise the White Fang?!" She continued, walking steadily with fury towards the raven-haired girl. "Because they are nothing but a bunch of liars, thieves, and murderers. And as far as I'm concerned, they, and the rest of their families can all burn for all I care-!"

 _*WHAP!*_

"!" Everyone's eyes lit up at once at this, including Nora's own.

They had feared it would get to this point. It went on for hours on end. It actually looked like there would eventually be an end to it that didn't resort to violence. Despite everyone's trust though, it was all dashed away as time itself froze in place. There, before them, stood a shocked Blake, and an equally shocked Weiss who was still reeling in from the sting of the sudden strike to her cheek. And yet between the two, it was not Weiss' eyes that watered with salty tears.

It was Blake's.

"WELL MAYBE WE WERE JUST TIRED OF BEING PUSHED AROUND!" And the damage was done. Right in front of both teams, in front of her best friend, in front of one of the closest things she ever had to being called an enemy, she just announced a relationship she had to the White Fang, an organization she once belonged to according to her close friend, something that meant the world to her since the moment of her birth. And just like that, Blake took off, her semblance leaving only a faint trail of which way she left.

"Wha-Wait! Blake! Come back!" Nora called out after her as she ran.

"Nora wait!" Ren took off after. One by one the fellow friends went after them one after the other. It started with Ren and Nora, followed by Jaune and Pyrrha who nodded to one another, and trailing behind them with Yang who couldn't afford to leave her team behind. Any friend of Ruby's was definitely a friend to Penny herself, deciding that if any friends of Ruby's were in a panic, she would assist them just as well as she would assist her own friend.

Out of all of it, Weiss was the only one who look at the leaving teams with confusion. "Hey, where's everyone going? I'm the one who was just attacked! Why are you going after her?" Ruby paused after passing Weiss a few feet ahead. Like she had with Blake, Ruby didn't give her the courtesy of attention.

"You know Weiss," she muttered in a low tone, "you keep telling me that I need to grow up, that I need to live up to the expectations of a leader and all that stuff. That I need to be an adult." She turned her head just far enough so that she could see the girl through the corner of her eye. "But if being an adult means I have to turn out to be an adult like you, then I hope I never grow up."

And then, Weiss was alone.

Blake was alone.

Everyone was alone.

Because in a world of mistrust and discord, loneliness was your only friend remaining.

...

...

It was from the rooftops Blake found herself, squatting behind the ledge as she buried her head into her knees.

Weiss was right, about everything. The White Fang had truly gone rogue from their predecessors, they weren't even a shadow of their former selves anymore. And she just went ahead and took up that frustrations on a Schnee who had to deal with that same level of despair, maybe even more than Blake's own, like she wasn't the victim here. It hurt because she was right. It hurt because she was still the victim. It hurt because there was still one more lie on her that even Ruby wasn't aware of.

 _*ring-ring*_

 _*ring-ring*_

"Hello?" Blake mumbled into her scroll, slowly lifting herself from the ground as she looked below at the city. "Yeah... And... Uh huh... good. Just bring it there and we'll sort it out tomorrow night. See if you can hit up one more dust shop by tomorrow. Make sure there's no one following you, pay off the people you usually do and keep a low profile till morning." With the conversation coming to an end, she clicked her scroll before putting it away.

The life of a White Fang member was never easy these days...

...

...

...

 _ **A/N: And viola! Another jolly (hopefully) update ^^ as I've been on the bends in terms of sleepy and somewhat, I apologize if my writing quality is down, still trying to get back into it X/ Anyway, if you think Blake's secret at the end of this is something shocking, you have no idea, because two chapters (?) from now, we'll be revealing an even darker secret Blake has been keeping, just as long as i don't die of a... HRGH! Hate when my heart stops briefly for no reason...**_

 _ **Anyway! Leave a like, fav, follow, and review, and hope to see you soon ^^!**_


	44. Vol 1 Episode 16 Part 1: Black and White

**_A/N: Amazing folks. over 40 chapters in and I've yet to run out of things to talk to about in these author's notes XP. Lol... Nearly 8.8k non-A/Ns here._**

 ** _Anyway, just a heads up, and sorry for the recent excuses, but latter half of this might be kinda clunky, I'm hooked up with sleeping medication right now so my mind is a bit all over the place. Chances are some bits here and there might be kind of off- not in a bad way, just...well.. you might know when you read ahead._**

 ** _Also a bit surprised I got this much out of just the FIRST 5 MINUTES OF THE VOL. 1 FINAL EPISODE XD cripes the rest is going to be big... I hope XP... And i am sorry I'm posting this now and not the whole thing at once. Aside from this turning out to be big, I got something to do for school tomorrow hence i couldn't post it then._**

 ** _With that said, no the rest of the episode isn't done this time like last time, so don't expect it till my next school day this wednesday. Also a shoutout to everyone who was trying to guess Blake's dark secret. My biggest praise goes to Beloved Nightmare Union because of his awesome guess! I mean it, it was awesome, it was so on point for numerous reasons!_**

 ** _The only problem was... It was wrong XP I'll be honest- I'm slapping myself now for it, but I completely forgotten like the first half of this fanfic after going on my vegas trip last month, and I so wanted to use his answer as the big secret. Unfortunately, I already had a secret in mind as I was thinking things through volume 1 of this that I had completely forgotten that one. It's troubling because I can't back out of the secret she has now cause it's plot essential. Cripes i hate myself for forgetting that cause it would've been a good twist XP_**

 ** _For those who don't know what his guess was, look for in the reviews. I say his guess was beyond great, and I'm a little jealous and peeved with myself for messing it up XP. Ah well, probably just add that in later for some future-future twist or something, I don't know XP._**

 ** _Anyway, please enjoy part 1 of the Volume 1 Finale!_**

 ** _..._**

 ** _..._**

 ** _..._**

 ** _~This will be the day we waited for~_**

 _Cinder and salem are seen standing on a balcony on the side of the latter's home looking out in the distance to where Vale would be. As they look up to a Nevermore flying overhead, the camera pans up as well, showing an orange sky that slowly turns blue._

 ** _~This will be the day we open up the door~_**

 _Returning back down from its view of the sky, we see Ruby opening the door to Beacon's main hall, Wolfie peaking out behind her, Blake standing next to her, oblivious to the Grimm's presence._

 ** _~I don't wanna hear your absolution~_**

 _The Camera 'flies' through the hallways until it settles on Ozpin going through illegible notes on his scroll next to a photo of young miss Fall._

 ** _~Hope your ready for a revolution~_**

 _Outside his window, WYJR can be seen standing together. As the screen is overtaken by a storm of white petals, Weiss pushes Jaune a bit away._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of new solutions~_**

 _One of the petals remain before a black background and is revealed to be Ruby as she pulls out [insert weapon name] and starts twirling her Scythe around, leaving a burning crimson Halo above herself._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of blood evolution~_**

 _The red halo turns into Wolfie's red Iris as the camera zooms out revealing the pool of blood beneath the Grimm. before he dissolves into a shadow and to the side._

 ** _~In time your heart will open minds~_**

 _The shadow flows beneath Ruby cloak who is standing with her team, a conflicted expression on her face. Soon though it is replaced with a look of determination as the Camera pans once more._

 ** _~A Story will be told~_**

 _When the camera settles on Ruby's viewpoint we see Amber kneeling before Cinder, before the camera zooms back and her surroundings turn into the vault beneath Beacon._

 ** _~And Victory is in a Simple Soul~_**

 _We see a final shot of a young Ruby hugging her family, which reveals itself to be an old picture in Salem's Hand who is enjoying tea served by Neo._

"Ok... Now what?" Ruby asked looking back to Salem. This had been one of the biggest days of her life, one that she considered to be the biggest test to make her grandmother proud. Today, at this very moment of her life, she was going to make her first ever Grimm!

The thoughts that accompanied this were endless! What kind of Grimm should she make? How many Grimm can she make? Does it have to have a size limit or could she make it as big as she wanted to? How long was it going to live for? Did the process of making a Grimm take long? Was there something to make the process speed up? Would it obey her too or just her grandma unless she ordered it to follow Ruby's every word? Could Grimm come in different colors like all white or all red? Could she make pre-existing Grimm or was there no limit to the imagination behind it? Was there any side effect of making a Grimm or multiple ones at once? Would they die if Ruby died too? Would she die if they all died? Can she make them with razorsharp claws and iron-plated scales?

These were the very thoughts that went through the young eleven-year-old's mind, never losing a second thinking about anything else. Except for how proud she knew she was going to make her grandma, of course. And she completed, what she assumed would be, the easiest step by placing the tip of her fingers atop the formless black liquid. It had a strange warmth to it as well as some form of stickiness. She assumed this must be what all Grimm feel like throughout their lives. Salem smiled as she kneeled over to her side, watching Ruby at her first of many attempts.

"Take your time, Ruby. This process will take awhile to master, even longer to complete it successfully." She commented. She could recall the first time she ever made her own Grimm decades ago. It took her nearly three months just to make a simple beowulf out of all things. Then again she was usually brooding those days, never thinking of much else other than the hatred she had for humanity. "First, you need to concentrate."

"Ok!... Concentrate on what?" She asked looking back and forth between the spawning pool and her grandmother.

"Your aura." She gathered up a small handful of black dirt and gently took Ruby's other hand as she sprinkled some on it. "Picture every little speck of your aura, every little ounce of it, and picture yourself bringing it to the very tip of your fingers."

"Ok... I'll try." Ruby took a deep breath as she closed her eyes thinking. Up till now, she never really thought about using her aura directly on any part of her body. There were a few lessons Hazel taught her about using her aura more efficiently to defend herself. In those times, she was taught how to focus it to a certain part around her, whether her front, her arms, her legs, and so forth.

In this case however, things were different. When it came to his lessons the area she needed to gather them at were all in a general location, which made sense. No one was going to you you with the tip of their mace, it was a blunt weapons. Even swords required a general area to block effectively. Most combatants were going to slash at you first to wear you down before going in for the kill. Here, she was being taught to gather it all at one certain point, her fingertips to be exact, And even if she had more time to herself to concentrate on something instead of using quick reflexes to throw something up, it didn't simplify the act.

"Umm... Gran? How do I know if this is working?" She asked without opening her eyes.

"It may take some time before you can do it successfully, dear." She admitted. "I've done it so often myself I usually don't notice the signs of it working anymore."

"Well should I be feeling something?" Salem contemplated this, trying to think of any advice that would help her.

"The first thing you might feel is a slight tingling sensation along your arm."

"Like goosebumps?"

"I suppose..." Salem didn't know whether or not to shrug. "It'll come and go like a wave from your shoulder to your arm. Just don't be discouraged-"

"I got something!" Ruby's eyes shot up all at once. What little room Salem did have briefly for doubt was quickly dismissed as she noticed a small amount of bubbling from the liquid right at Ruby's fingertips.

"Incredible..." She muttered. She couldn't believe it. She wouldn't have believed it if one of her assistants told her that Ruby was mastering the art of making a Grimm so easily. In fact, there was every reason not to! How could anyone, a mere child at that, already progress this far in under a minute? It took Salem alone the first week to get to the point of where Ruby was at now! There had to be some other reasoning for-

"Now what?" She asked looking to her grandmother again.

Ah yes. Of course. How could she ever forget about that? She was so surprised with her sudden development that she had almost forgotten about Ruby's special quality.

Her Silver Eyes.

Not wanting to waste this interesting moment further, she smiled to Ruby as she glanced at the small bubbling puddle she was touching. "Now, comes both the fun, and the hardest, part of this. Making the Grimm." She enjoyed the look of excitement that lit up on Ruby's face, watching her eyes widening along with her mouth.

It was cute.

"Yaaa! Ok come on Grimm! Come out!" She ordered enthusiastically. It was becoming increasingly harder for Salem to stifle the small giggle building up in her throat.

"It doesn't quite work that way, dear." She gestured to the small nevermore chick she created moments ago before Ruby started. "You need to have a clear vision in your mind of what you wish to create."

"I just wanna create Grimm, Gran." Ruby smiled back to her.

"Yes, I know sweetie, but you need to be explicit in detail. You need to picture everything about it," she went on as she scratched the nevermore chick under it's neck, "from it's head, it's arms, legs, perhaps a tail or two. And that's not even including the organs you need to think of. You'll need to think of how they breathe, how strong their skin is, everything. And you need to be careful and start out with something small, Ruby. You'll be exerting your own aura into whatever you make. Use too much and you'll make yourself sick. Do you understand?"

"Mh hm." Ruby nodded to her as she turned back to the liquid, closing her eyes in focus. She needed to think of something simple like a bird, insect, or maybe even a fish. She needed to think of everything the Grimm could be capable of, not just what it would need to actually live. It could be something really strong, or something really fast. Maybe something with a very durable shell? At the very least, she should make something like Wolfie, something that she could pull out of her shadow to help her in a fight, or any dilemma for that matter.

At the same time, Salem grew a small smile as she watched Ruby carefully. The more the child focused, the more she could see the liquid around her hand start to bubble. She was progressing so well, she wondered why she put this off at all until just now. She should've done this months ago, maybe years from when she first met Ruby. She could feel herself growing a little excited to see what Ruby's first Grimm was. She didn't expect anything much at the time, but anything she could make at all by this point would be a major development in her training as a valuable ally.

As well as keep her safe.

"Huh!" It was almost instinctively that Ruby found herself opening her eyes again as she slowly dipped her hand into the black liquid. Salem could recall that look easily, feeling it multiple times during her life whenever she made a Grimm. No matter how used to it she got, nothing could erase the familiar feeling she got whenever a Grimm was being formed, that sense of readiness that told her that a Grimm was ready to be brought into this world.

And just like everything else Salem did, Ruby slowly pulled her hand out of the pool of darkness, clutching a roundish blob of goo reminiscent to the egg-shaped blackness Salem brought out in her example, showing the young girl what resulted in being a nevermore.

"I did it... I did it Granny Salem!" Ruby cheered, nearly losing her nerve for a split second which almost resulted in her dropping the dripping blob. She felt absolute warmth from the smile Salem was giving her while stroking her head.

"I'm very proud of you." She said it in an average and plain voice, one that meant wonders to the young Ruby.

She finally did it. Not only did she make a Grimm for the first time, one that was still forming in the glob she was holding, she also did something that made her grandmother proud of her. This was definitely turning into one of the best days of her life. Now if this could've been a month from now when her supposed birthday was, that would've made it the best birthday ever.

There was only one question forming on Salem's mind at this very moment.

"What did you make...?"

...

...

...

The morning sun did nothing to brighten Blake's mood as she walked down the sidewalk, nor the outlook of things to come.

Yesterday had been one of the worst days of her life, if not THE worse day of her life. In one single afternoon, she announced her Faunus heritage, picked a fight with an opposing team leader, possibly starting who knows what kind of feud between Teamp RBPN and Team WYJR, and worst of all, possibly made lifetime enemies with a fellow Schnee, the company of what used to be the bane of Faunus everywhere. She slapped one of Ruby's good friends out of anger, and nothing would make up for that.

And those were all part of the good news side of things!

The bad news was, evidently, she was a White Fang. Not just a trainee, not just some former member who used to be a part of it, she was a full-fledged member of the White Fang. How much of that did she end up revealing last night? She announced it right in front of all her friends, after slapping Weiss, how she, and Faunus everywhere, were tired of being pushed around by discrimination. But did any of that come out as admitting she was a member of the White Fang too? She hoped not.

She could barely remember what transpired last night out of all things. They had a fight, Weiss said something, then Blake slapped her. Maybe she could've expected less of an outcome if she left it at that, maybe not. It was impossible to say anymore by this point. Whatever happened between the two teams was all on her, all her fault. All because she kept a secret from all of her friends, including Ruby, the one person she was hiding one additional secret from.

"Heya!" An anonymous voice greeted her from nowhere. Faster than she could process what to ask, the greeter came in the form of the young monkey Faunus both teams met yesterday on the docks, the blonde greeting her upside down as he hung from his tail by the lamppost. "You know you look better without the Ribbon, right?"

"Uh..."

She was at a cross between the teen's sudden appearance and the follow-up question that came with it. With all the worries and fears she was building up to this point she barely paid attention as their chatting location changed from the everyday sidewalk to the top of a small coffee shop, one overlooking the streets below.

"So, take it you're having a bad day?" The monkey Faunus guessed sipping his drink.

"What was your first clue...' Blake muttered looking at her own, still dealing with the multitude of thoughts clouding her mind.

"Weeeeell the silent talkback for last full hour, the broody mood you seem to be in, and the lack of eye contact was a small give away, but consider it a gift of mine to know when a damsel's in distress, heh..." What little joking he thought would brighten her spirits, or at least get some form of reaction out of her, turned out to be for naught. All she did was continue with that to stare at her drink with that same look of discord that filled her mind. "H-Hey, it was just a joke. I didn't really mean anything by it-'

"It's okay." She quickly replied, taking a sip of her drink.

This was the hardest thing of every man's, or at least teen boy's, life. What was one to do with a girl that was so full of sorrow? They couldn't say anything without the risk of it backlashing, they couldn't crack jokes that might easily offend the girl in even the smallest of ways, and they couldn't flaunt their incredibly awesome muscles to impress them. They would be forced to be calm, patient, and understanding no matter how painful it was, less they chance the possibility of incurring the girl's wrath.

"Seriously, are you okay? You look horrible." It took him three full seconds to contemplate what he just said. "Ehh n-not that I mean you look _look_ horrible, I mean uh-!"

"It's fine. I don't really care how I look right now." That was one crisis averted for the young Faunus, but it just made the situation more troubling.

"Do you... wanna talk about it? I mean we can just sit for a bit or something if you want-"

"Sun." Blake spoke in a direct tone, cutting him off. "Do you know about the White Fang?"

"Huh?... Well duh, I don't think there's a Faunus on the planet who doesn't know about the White Fang! Stupid, holier-than-thou creeps that use force to get whatever they want. Bunch of freaks if you ask me-"

"I'm one of their members." The sound of Sun choking on his drink left little room to doubt what he just heard.

"Th-Ta-Y-You are?!" He stuttered gulping nervously.

"And my parents ran it."

Ok. He could die now. He just said just about every insulting thing to this girl and her entire family line no matter how far back it went. He had to think of something and fast, anything that kept him from both insulting her and making personal enemies to the White Fang. "Errr... O-Of course, when I say...l-lunatics, I-I clearly mean that in the best possible way. I-I mean I hear such great things about-"

"Don't."

"Sorry." The scratch in the back of his head didn't make it any less awkward.

"I mean don't apologize." She clarified, having yet to lift the look of torment from her being. "Everything you say, everything you've heard... it's true." Even in these seemingly peaceful moments, Blake could recall each and every little detail as if it was yesterday.

"I was born into the White Fang, literally in this case. Back then, we were pretty simple. In the ashes of war we were promised freedom and equality amongst fellow humans. Yet, all we received were broken promises and empty dreams. We were subjected, discriminated against, and above all hated. All just because we were alive."

"We were discriminated by all forms of humanity, so the White Fang became the voice of the Faunus. And there I was, at the front of every rally, alongside my parents. We held the occasional rally and marches here and there, boycotted any companies that discriminated harshly, and rallied against any business that considered Faunus life below that of simple rats."

"Yeah, that's what I heard from back then." Finally! Something he could promote in a positive outlook! "That back before all the crazy horror stories popped up. People everywhere said rallies were almost commonplace across Remnant."

"They were commonplace because they rarely worked." Surprisingly Blake smiled at this rather grim detail. "So we never quit. We kept rallying day by day for the rights of Faunus everywhere. We didn't win much, but for each rally that did, we celebrated. We grew, became stronger, and garnered a little respect from some people."

"I was just five years old when we found others willing to help us. A... A friend of mine, her family. They would support to the best of their capabilities. They gave us funding, tools to make each rally more efficient. I even had a little sister for awhile. It was nice."

"But it didn't last." Sun assumed. There was no way this story would continue with a happy outcome.

"No, it... it changed. Something happened to it. It became violent, eratic. Our leader refused to be a part of the violence, to be seen as the figurehead behind all this, so he stepped down. That only made things worse. The new leader was cruel, cold-hearted. We began setting fire to shops that refused to serve us, hijacked cargo from companies that used Faunus labour. And you want to know the worst part of it all?"

"...It was working. We were being treated as equals. People were finally accepting us for the first time in years. But it wasn't out of respect... it was out of fear. We were only succeeding because people feared us... feared the White Fang..."

Sun continued to watch the as a single tear rolled down the young catgirl's cheek, dripping into the very tea she was staring into. This, everything she was revealing to her was just... hardening. To live in a world where your family started something so great, just for it to be taken over and corrupted from the inside, it was... saddening.

Recalling it alone just made her feel worse. Every time she did, it burned like a physical scar. There was no healing from the damages, no undoing the details, no second chances to make things right. Nothing they did would be forgotten, it would be remembered for the centuries to come, maybe the milleniums. There was just pain and despair for everything within the White Fang, and everything outside of it.

There was still one question looming on Sun's mind. "So why are you still in it?" There was no avoiding the question now. "You seem well tempered all things considered. Heck you just told me everything there is to know. And I haven't told you squat about me other than my name. That already shows you're a bit too trusting for a White Fang member."

"Isn't it obvious?" Personally she thought it was, and on the outlook of things, it should've been. "I'm trying to fix it. I've been undercover from within since the moment it changed. The only consolation I've had to work with is the promotion I've had with being a member. As a Captain, I've had priority and authorization to direct White Fangs in certain parts of Vale. Not all of course but more than enough. With what little impact I've had, I've managed to minimalize multiple attacks, diverted attention away from families, and so on. Yet it's never been enough..."

That made sense. It had to make sense. Just from her appearance alone, he could tell she was somewhat of a personal, closed-off girl, and a gentle and kind one at that. The tear itself was enough proof to tell him that she regretted everything that the White Fang had become, that she was being honest in this one moment and time of need.

"There's still something I don't understand though." The inquisitive look he was giving off made her the curious one now.

"What?"

"You said you were born into it and your family ran it at first, right?"

"Yeah...? I Technically it's been around for awhile honestly, my parents were just the previous ones to inherit it. Why?"

"Then how could you still be in it? I mean if everyone knows you were the daughter of the last leader, then wouldn't that make it harder for them to trust you? For that matter, why would they bother promoting you then?"

 _*Bzzzt*_

 _*Bzzzt*_

 _*Bzzzt*_

Blake counted her lucky stars to herself as her scroll went off. After what happened yesterday, she prioritized it to only go off if matters of importance were trying to contact her, aka, the White Fang.

"Hello?" Sun watched closely as her eyes shifted to him for a bit, signaling what he knew by then. "Yeah... Alright. Round up the work here and meet at the rendevouz tonight." She instructed before hanging up.

"White Fang buddies?" He asked knowingly.

"I'm meeting with an informant tonight, someone who's been disclosing information to the White Fang for weeks now." She replied as she rose from the table. "Thanks for the drink. I'll be sure to pay you back-"

"Whoooa, hold up missy. Where do you think you're going?" Sun smirked as he jumped from his seat. "I want in."

"Wha-?" He was kidding, right? "You want to join the White Fang?"

"No, I want to meet up with the informant tonight, and catch your back."

"Look, Sun, I appreciate it and everything, but-"

"No buts about it!" He said cracking his knuckles. "You said you wanted to change the White Fang for the better, and to do that you have to stop them as they are now, right? Then let me come with you."

"No!" She snapped, nearly making him jump. It was the first time she looked panicked and discontent since the conversation started. "I can't get anyone involved in this, Sun. I can't make the same mistake again!"

"What mistake?" Throughout the tension and drama, Blake almost found herself spilling the beans, catching herself quickly before it went any further.

"...It doesn't matter anymore. Goodbye." And with the dash of her semblance, she was gone from view. Presuming she took the road down below, she was already out of sight by the time he looked around.

Well that was great. He made friends with someone undercover who spent a life full of tragedy, and instead of easing her tension and trying to comfort her, she left him in a state of anger and remorse.

How the heck was he supposed to know?! He just had five minutes of chatting with her to get to know her, and the next thing he knows he pisses her off to the point of wanting to leave. So what if it wasn't in his area to pry? She was suffering in multiple ways, for various reasons, so he would've been a bigger jerk if he just let it slide and didn't care about what happened to her!

And with her speedy exit, it was already too late to apologize. Crap, he never even got her number! So what was he to do? The only thing he found out was that she was meeting with an informant somewhere tonight, presumably with a warehouse or somewhere they could load and unload large quantities of materials, like at the docks. She begged him not to go and not to bother her tonight, and as the manly man he clearly was, he was not one to deny a lady's request no matter the cost.

...Still... that doesn't mean he couldn't just take a simple "walk" around town tonight, right?

...

...

"Blaaaaake!" Ruby called out again as they searched the city.

This was horrible. This was absolutely horrible!

From day one, Ruby's quest was to infiltrate Beacon Academy, find the maiden, and then proceed accordingly from there by either killing her or just contacting her mother and Salem, and then await further orders. Those orders were given to her two months ago, and throughout all the work she did, investigating, all the annoying history books she was forced to put herself through just to find a clue as to thy Maiden's whereabouts, nothing came up that was useful. It was only thanks to her self-entitled sister that she did discover her possible location yesterday morning.

With that, she made a plan. Just out of the decency of her heart and the fact she owed it to Blake herself since she helped put together the location in a few minutes, Ruby decided to spend one last day with her friends and teammates before going after the Maiden. It would've been her way of saying thanks to them for everything, even if she did actually resent them and everything they were. They were Hunters and Huntresses, there was no arguing around that. They were her enemy, and as far as she was concerned, they would always be her enemy no matter how much she came to like some of them.

So with that, yesterday should've been a walk in the park, right? They spent the morning looking around town, socializing, and discussing everything and anything there was to discuss, including the exciting announcement that the Vytal Festival, a time where numerous people from around the world would come to celebrate and compete in a Tournament, one of the few fun things Ruby would've loved more than anything to take a part in. And she wishes for nothing more than for that to be the biggest problem of her day. At worst, she would've had to leave the academy. At best, she could've possibly convinced her family to let her stay just long enough for her to take part in the tournament. That would've been the end of it!

The forces of fate were very unkind though. After coming across the remains of a Dust Shop that had been ransacked by the White Fang, somehow one of Ruby's absolute number 2 bestest friend in the whole wide world, Weiss, got it in her mind to start commenting and scoffing at the ideals of the White Fang. She didnt' care what their reasons were, she didn't care what backstories they had, she didn't care for any of the families who had members that were in the Faunus-runned organization. All she cared about was what they did on the surface, that was it.

To be fair, it wasn't entirely her fault, something Ruby wished was untrue so it would be easier to blame her. Ever since she was a kid, she had a very difficult life dealing with her father. Whenever family friends disappeared, whenever a business or company was attacked, any time in the world where a cargo full of valuable Dust was hijacked all thanks to the White Fang, her father would take it out on the family. Ruby herself didn't know what that entailed, and a part of her was too scared to find out. All she knew was that thanks to Weiss' father, thanks to what the White Fang did to anger him, all her troubles and hardships were the blame of the White Fang, the once proud group Ruby would've gladly signed up for and assisted back when she was a kid.

As if none of that was enough to add fuel to the fire, their argument escalated till nightfall itself, never giving a moment's rest to just calm down and continue exploring the city during their peaceful weekend. Whether it was the waring tension that built up to that point or the exhaustion from a full day's argument, all of the anger and frustration culminated to Blake slapping Weiss in front of both teams, taking off shortly after with tears in her own eyes.

If there was any upside to all of this, it's that Blake had good friends. Both teams were there when the argument went on, and regardless of what happened they were both trying to help find her together to this very afternoon. This gave Ruby some comfort, knowing that she would still have friends looking out for her when she finally completed her mission here and left. At least she got to meet her one last time out of all this.

"Blaaaake?" Nora's voice echoed as she peered into a dumpster, hoping from one another in the blink of an eye in each alleyway as the group walked down the road. "Blaaake! Blake? Blake! Blake? Blaaake!"

"Nora, why are you checking the dumpsters?" Ren stopped to ask. He had too much kindness to point out she was starting to smell from it.

"Well duh, she never came home last night!" Nora replied rolling her eyes, immediately disappearing to the next one. "If I was forced to sleep outside alone in the middle of a city, I'd at least want something covering over my head." She said closing another lid.

"You don't think she might've left town altogether, do you?" Yang asked looking back. "She was pretty upset after yesterday..."

"Hmph!" A simple look to Weiss made the leader herself grunt as she turned her head away, crossing her arms.

"You know you don't have to come along if you don't want to." Jaune whispered over.

"What? And leave everyone assuming I'm the one at fault here?"

"Well you were the one who shouted at her about how all Faunus related to the White Fang should be burning, including their families..." Pyrrha reminded. It hurt the most when one of the most astounding girls you idolized throughout the years were the ones to berrate you.

"And she's the one who slapped me!" She stammered. "Besides, how was I supposed to know she was a Faunus? I didn't know about it till just this morning!"

"To be fair, we didn't find out either until last night at the dorms." Pyrrha replied, looking back to their hooded leader.

She hated betraying that fact, the info Blake wanted to keep hidden all this time, but what choice did she have? They needed to know what upset her so much, what drove their team member to abadnoning them at near-midnight in the middle of the city. Naturally she didn't divulge everything like Blake's parents being in it too and such. There was no reason to drag the entire family into it. At least she didn't tell her that she was still a member of the White Fang either, there's no telling how much trouble that would've caused.

Mostly because she didn't know it herself.

"I thought the observation was quite obvious." Penny said, perky as ever. "I saw little room for doubt upon first appearance."

"Uhhh... yeah... Who are you again?" Yang was told just as much as everyone else about this girl, which was to say... nothing. Appearance was all they had on this girl.

"I am fellow Ruby Rubes new friend! A pleasure to meet you!" She greeted again.

"It's just Ruby, Penny." Ruby sighed.

"Oh! My apologies Just Ruby."

"Nevermind..."

"Is there anywhere she might've gone to? Somewhere to just relax or that she would find comfortable?" Ren asked.

"How am I supposed to know? I'm not on her team." Jaune shrugged.

"Your guess is probably better than ours." Nora shrugged. "She liked to hang out with us most of the time and just did what we did."

"Ruby, you were her friend growing up," Pyrrha reminded, "did you two have some favorite spot you liked to hang out at?"

"No." The frowning shake of her head said it all. "We just met once or twice a month, but even then we didn't really have a favorite place or anything like that. For most of my life, I was just confined to one building. Aside from my family, Blake was my only friend."

Saddening.

That's what it sounded like to those that surrounded her. To Ruby herself, she found it rather ironic. All throughout her life she's always been confined to one building in her life. As time went on the size of her freedom grew, but never outside the sights of those who cared about her. First it was just a simple apartment building, then it grew to blocks around the city surrounding it. Eventually it all culminated to her moving into Salem's domain, where the freedom was only as large as the Grimm surrounding it.

The ironic part of all this was where she was now. She found herself at a little place known as Beacon, one of the top Hunter Academies across the world. Here, she was surrounded by enemies, while also finding herself with a small town she could often visit from time to time. Even with this though, it was no less different than the places she's been before, a place of isolation, a place without freedom.

Changing the colors of a prison doesn't make it any less different.

"You guys have been through a lot together, huh?" Yang spoke up, trying to cheer her up somewhat.

"Mmh... kind of. She was always nice to me, nice to my family, and her family was always happy together whenever I saw them. I didn't realize until I was older that they... they've been through a lot of discrimination, the things the White Fang used to fight for. Blake and I always dreamed of joining them one day when we were kids. We always went on and on how we'd be heroes to the fellow Faunus and whatnot."

"Heh, sounds like something a kid would say." Jaune chuckled a bit. "I take it they weren't as crazy back then, were they?"

"I wouldn't exactly call them crazy even now, Jaune." Pyrrha commented, trying to defend her fellow Faunus friend. "It's not like they run about attacking their own people or anything."

"Yeah, I mean crazy would be like rallying at a Faunus rally to rally against the Faunus." Nora chipped in.

"It doesn't matter anyway." Ruby mumbled. "I don't know how long she was in the White Fang or why. All I know is that they're responsible for separating us, the reason I never got to see her again... But I know she's not a bad person, Weiss. She's kind, considerate, thinks of others. Bad people don't think like that, not like caring people.

"Unless they just want to earn your trust." Weiss retorted. That hurt. It really hurt. Not because it was still strict, not because she said it so casually. It's because Ruby couldn't find an argument to that. "That's just what the White Fang would do, Ruby. They manipulate, lie, cheat, steal, do whatever it takes to make sure their missions go smoothly from start to finish. I've seen numerous friends disappear, some people from my parents' family, and people killed just to make a statement."

She walked right up to Ruby slowly as she spoke. "Many of those people, were good friends of mine. And did any of the White Fang care about that when they started disappearing? No. They didn't care, they didn't ask how I was doing, they didn't mind how it tore me up with how I was dealing with their loss and my father's anger. They didn't care then. And I can promise you, White Fang or not, she doesn't care either. If she did, she never would've left, she never would've kept anyone else in the dark, and she would've bothered to call you at the very least if she cared about you."

"Hey!" Yang growled a little stepping between the two, all while Ruby could feel her own fists clenching.

"What? I"m just telling it as it is!" Weiss snapped back. "They didn't care how old any of my friends were when they disappeared. Why would any of them care now, whether or not they're still members?"

"You know what Weiss?" Ruby mumbled keeping her head down. Not even her own teammates could tell what she was about to do. Weiss' words might've been a bit too close to home, metaphorically in some cases, but it's not entirely her fault. But Blake was Ruby's friend, they had no room to argue with how she took Weiss' words or how she responded to them. After several moments of tension had past, Ruby looked straight into Weiss' eyes, with an apologetic look in her eyes. "You're right."

"Huh?" Well... Good! Of course she was right! There was no arguing with anything she said!

Right?

"You're right, Weiss. I don't know Blake anymore. I don't know anything about her, I haven't even seen her for nearly half my life. I don't know what drove her to join the White Fang as is, I don't know why she left after, and I don't know why she never bothered coming back for me."

"Ruby..." Yang could see the look of pain growing on Ruby's face, as well as the rest of her friends. None of them needed to see the face covered up by her hood to get an idea of the pain she was feeling. Neither did Weiss.

"At any point, at any given time, she could've just been like "Hey Ruby, I'm back! Did you miss me?", and we'd probably just laugh it off. And now, given what's happened, I feel like history's repeating with her abandoning me again and me being unable to understand why or where she went." All at once, the mass of tension that kept Ruby's head lowered raised to the skys above as she looked back to Weiss with a face filled with determination. "And times change, Weiss. Blake has too. I've changed over the years, Jaune's changed in the few months, even you've changed no matter how much you say otherwise!"

She never gave her the chance to respond. "Right now, Blake is my friend. That's the one thing that hasn't changed no matter how much time has passed. That's the part of my life I've refused to let go of. I'm never going to let go of that fact or let it change after all we've been through."

 _The same flower at the time who just cried silently on her bed. Even with it's massive size, Wolfie managed to lie upon the bed easily, a noticeable frown on it's own face as Ruby just lied on it's side. The wolf just lied there as Ruby cried into it's fur silently, looking back at the pendant once more._

 _It was all she had left. All that she had to remember someone she had a special bond with. Blake. A sister. Her sister. She had no idea when it ever would be, never knowing what day it could be. But she was sure, rubbing the small pendant with her thumb, she was sure to herself that she would see her friend Blake again. But it did nothing to stop the flow of tears that dripped from her cheeks._

 _"See you later...Blake..."_

"I refuse to let that change no matter how much it hurts, no matter what pain it brings, because they're the best parts of my life." It was only her. Ony from the viewpoint of where Weiss was standing could she see small ducts of tears welling up in the far corners of Ruby's eyes. "And I'm sorry for what they did, Weiss. I'm sorry for everyone you've lost and all the pain you sufffered. I will never understand that level of pain. Blake was the only one I could call friend. I only know what it's like to lose one person, that's it. But at least you have those times you've had, those reasons to be sad because you cherish them. You've never lost that no matter how much time has changed. And no matter how much she's changed herself, I'm always going to try and save the Blake I know."

"..."

How dare she! How dare she do this to her. How dispicable of Ruby. How dare she do this, blatantly and out in the open, trying to convince Weiss herself to move on from her pains while still keeping a part of them? Didn't she know Didn't she understand she's long gotten past that, past all of it to be where she was now? Didn't she understand?

Didn't Weiss herself understand she was right? Ouch. That hurt to admit. Ruby was right. She has no idea what Weiss has been through, no idea of what happened to herself, and she had no reason bring it all up in front of her like she knew Weiss better than what made any of it right?

...Her words. Weiss had so many painful memories, so many people she's lost in her life who left her with grief. Grief she only has because she had so many fond memories of them, ones she refused to let go of. She felt a little envious of Ruby at that. The girl who had little of the outside world compared to the girl who was spoiled with everything. There were so many things Ruby didn't have growing up, and it was thanks to that she didn't obtain the sadness that went with losing them.

"...Huff, way to make me out to be the bad guy..." She mumbled.

"Huh?" Ruby wondered if that was the correct reponse to what she said.

"Are we still sure she's in the city?" She asked looking around.

"I think so. She couldn't have gone very far without much lien." Ren answered.

"Then our best bet is to split up." Weiss anounced taking charge. "Let's split into groups of two people. We'll start outside the town and work our way in."

"Why two?" Jaune asked what was on everyone's mind. "Wouldn't it make more sense to split up completely then to cover more ground?"

"No. If she spots just one of us, she might think we still resent her or something. We'll pair up with members from both teams so she knows there's nothign to worry about." On the surface it was a solid plan. It'd be one thing if Blake actually saw any of team WYJR seperately after what happened. She could at least find some comfort if she saw there were no issues between the two teams, at least enough to see them both standing side by side together. "So we'll split into teams. Jaune, Ren, you take North side."

"Awwwww..." Nora groaned.

"Yang, Pyrrha, you take the eastern side. Check any of the stores around there, there might be a peaceful spot or something she likes."

"She does like reading..." Ruby mumbled.

"Nora, you and I will cover the West side. Maybe she's back at the bay where the ships came in."

"You mean the place where you guys had that spout?" Nora said in an innocent tone, unaware of the pulsing vein growing on Weiss' brow.

"Yes... where we had the disagreement." She then turend to the last two people on the list. "That just leaves Ruby and..." She stared at the ginger girl briefly, glancing up and down her body for the questionable outfit she was wearing. "Her friend... You guys take the south side. Ruby, you can cover more ground too and she trusts you the most, so if you need to, be sure to split up.

"I... I got it." With the teams assembled, each member nodded to each other one by one. With Pyrrha and Yang taking the East side, the two girls quickly ran to their destination, hoping to catch up to Blake if possible. Feeling like the odd couple out of the group with nothing else to do, Ren and Jaune did the same, heading to their destinations.

"Weiss wait!" Ruby requested before the white-haired girl could take off. "What are you going to do when you find her?" Weiss' silence was rather uncomfortable.

There were too many things that would happen if they met again, They could talk things out, kill each other, declare nuclear war on each team until only one side is left standing! Accepting it was among the last of possibilities, and the very last doubtful thing that would happen. Clearly Weiss knew this, and anything she said next was going to be comforting.

"I'm going to make things even, that's what." Those were her words, and the only things she went by before taking off with Nora.

So much for comfort.

It was at this point Ruby realized that she was finally alone, save for a lone Penny on the ground. All her friends were scattered throughout the city, and one closest to her needed her help. It was like a game of chess in a way, seeing how all the pieces were gathered in their appropriate spots. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity she had, one she knew she wouldn't get again, one she needed to take.

"Excuse me Just Ruby, is something the matter?" Penny asked, growing concerned at the silence the hooded girl gave off.

"Uhhhh y-yeah..." This felt more akward than the little speech she gave out a short while ago. She went on and on about not abandoning her friend, yet here she was about to do just that for the sake of her mission. Hypocrite. "I uhh... I have something to do, Penny. Somewhere to go."

"Will you be gone long?" Penny asked as Ruby walked several yards past her.

"M... Maybe. I don't know exactly, it depends on how things go."

"Then don't you want to say goodbye just in case?" Penny suggested with a small smile, speaking in a strangely calming tone.

"No, it's... I think it's best if I just go." LIe. Complete and utter lie. She was about to take back everything she just got done speaking about all for the sake of some mission, this time abandoning her friend when she was the one in need of help. She was completely aware she was lying and she didn't care. She didn't care that she was lying about saving her sister, and she didn't care she was about to leave without a goodbye.

All the same, Penny fumbled with her fingers a bit as she looked down at them, the small smile on her face never leaving. "I see... Ok then. I wish you luck on your endeavors, Just Ruby."

"Pennyyyy..." She rolled her eyes somewhat playful. "My name isn't Just Ruby, it's Ruby Fall."

"No you're not." The bluntness of her statement was actually kind of surprising. "You're Just Ruby, and only Just Ruby."

"I don't follow."

"You're a silly friend. It's just like I said. You are Just Ruby. A last name doesn't define you or who you are. I am just Penny, and you are Just Ruby. You might want to be Flying Space Ruby, boy Ruby, Snake Ruby, or just simply Ruby Ruby, but none of that means anything. You define what kind of Ruby you want to be. You can choose to take your own course of action and not worry about those who are pressuring you. To them, you might be special, or you might be a tool. But none of us care about that. Because in my eyes, and the eyes of all your friends, you will always be Just Ruby."

This was strange. The strangeness didn't come just from the mysterious girl who Ruby had met not twenty-four hours ago. It didn't come from the strange mannerisms in which she spoke. What was strange was the unique sense of knowing hidden within Penny's voice. It sounded verily familiar, someone she could easily recall with one thought.

She spoke just like Ozpin. From the way she spoke in a professional tone, all the way to how she sounded knowingly of things to come, events that have yet to transpire. Words that made Ruby question the little things in life she never did question.

It terrified her. It terrified how close she was to believing this Penny. She needed to finish her job and fast while the desire to please her family still meant something to her.

"Yeah well... It was nice meeting you, Just Penny." She replied giving her a brief smile. "Maybe we'll see each other again someday." At this, the loveable perky Penny just smiled with a small now and the nod of her head.

"I look forward to that day of socializing with you, Just Ruby." She kept waving to her goodbye until Ruby was finally out of sight. When the girl finally left all traces of her view, Penny turned around and began walking the opposite direction. She still had another friend to help that Ruby cared about.

Ruby could no longer stick around. She had to finish this mission, she had to finish all of it tonight.

She was off to kill the Fall Maiden.

...

...

...

 _ **A/N: Hooftah, wasn't that a fun read ^^?... It wasn't?... well this is awkward now...**_

 _ **Lol, anyway, sorry for any crap writing in the latter half of this, kinda loopy still on the sleeping meds. With all said and done, hope to see you guys this Wednesday for the long awaited Volume 1 Finale!**_

 _ **Leave a like, fav, follow, and review if you enjoyed, and hope to see you soon :D!**_

 _ **P.S. Once again nightmare union, i really wish I went with your twist compared to what I have XP**_

 _ **And don't forget the Valentine's special! You can post something for it any time between now and V-day (Feb. 14th?). Needs to be something within this fanfic's universe, and at least 3k words minimum. It can be anything in the season of love (not lemon), or something just real cute and adorable that makes the hearts flutter ^^**_

 _ **Till next time, cya :D!**_


	45. AN: Valentine's Day Choice!

A/N: Hey guys! It's your favorite author with another A/N's only posting :D!

*BANG**BANG**BANG**BANG**BANG**BANG**BANG**BANG**BANG**BANG**BANG**BANG**BANG*

AHH! WAIT WAIT WAIT! This time I have a good reason for it!

...*BANG*

Knock it off! Eh hem... Anyway, my posting comes as this:

I'm going to take part in the Valentine's Day special. Yes indeed, I have something cute and fluffy and all around adorable for the posting ^^ Problem is, I have 2 ideas. And since it's only 1 per entry (thems the rulez), I decided to take a crack at it and decide to leave the options in your hands folks ^^! Horray for laziness!

And yes, below you'll see the two possible choices:

Choice A: A simple look back at the infamous day, that dreaded time, the most unholiest of moments-! When Blake and Ruby made cookies for their mommies for the first time when they were 5 and 7 and the outcome that followed ^^

Choice B: Actually a bit... Different. It's shipping! Or shipped. I'll be honest, this is the result of being informed about a certain ship-based family as of late, and after seeing the pictures, omg are they freaking adorable _! SO i just have to do it! And yes it'll be non-canon, cause trying to do it NOT non-canon...I don't see that working XP Technically the other one will be non-canon too since it's along the lines of a bonus episode but you get the idea.

This option entails having the lovely couple of Weiss Schnee, and Ruby Schnee ^^ As a couple, and yes, still both girls. And THEIR adorable baby girl Mei Schnee! And what more ridiculously over the top adorable and otherwise stupid idea could I do than a "Visit to Grandma's for the weekend"- and yes. I mean Ruby bringing Weiss and their baby so she can see Grandma (Cinder) and Great grandma (Salem) for the first time in person. Naturally, it's all for fluffs and cuteness, and humor since both moms hate a certain Schnee- and no not the cute one. So SHOCKINGLY, people might not be entirely in character XP.

Just thought I'd throw this at you guys. Decisions entirely up to you, but because I NEED to do something, there won't be a finale till my demands are met! ANd if you think I'm evil now, several weeks from now when we get the vol 2 finale, I plan on holding the entire fanfic hostage until Hawaii designates me as their honorary king for life!

Lol seriously though, let me know what you guys wish for. Otherwise Finale will have to wait till Friday.


	46. Vol 1 Episode 16 Part 2: Black and White

_**A/N: A grand 11.5K Pre-A/N's, and with the last one being around a good 6-8k words and this still being a part of it, I feel this one is going to be a complete flop. Why is that? Cause the last time I did a 2 parter with about 19-20k words, that ended horribly with nearly half the feedback I got despite being the intended finale of all things XD.**_

 _ **Well folks, don't got much more to say about this one. I decided to do this first THEN the bonus Ruby x Weiss shipping episode after, like one of those animes where right after the finale of an arc or volume, they have some over the top goofy out of nowhere filler episode that's just for laughs and whatnot.**_

 _ **And I believe I got everything just about ready and where it should be. The latter half I did within about 3 hours, so excuse any bad writing or flops I've made in the writing. Hope you guys enjoy this Volume 1 Grand Finale X) As we partake in another epic battle (series wise at least, hope this one's as good as the last one during the initiation), as well as discovering Blake's dark secret. Like I said, Nightmare union had a good idea, but I had to do something different, so hopefully it'll still be just as good of a twist.**_

 _ **Enjoy!**_

 _ **...**_

 _ **...**_

 _ **...**_

 ** _~This will be the day we waited for~_**

 _Cinder and salem are seen standing on a balcony on the side of the latter's home looking out in the distance to where Vale would be. As they look up to a Nevermore flying overhead, the camera pans up as well, showing an orange sky that slowly turns blue._

 ** _~This will be the day we open up the door~_**

 _Returning back down from its view of the sky, we see Ruby opening the door to Beacon's main hall, Wolfie peaking out behind her, Blake standing next to her, oblivious to the Grimm's presence._

 ** _~I don't wanna hear your absolution~_**

 _The Camera 'flies' through the hallways until it settles on Ozpin going through illegible notes on his scroll next to a photo of young miss Fall._

 ** _~Hope your ready for a revolution~_**

 _Outside his window, WYJR can be seen standing together. As the screen is overtaken by a storm of white petals, Weiss pushes Jaune a bit away._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of new solutions~_**

 _One of the petals remain before a black background and is revealed to be Ruby as she pulls out [insert weapon name] and starts twirling her Scythe around, leaving a burning crimson Halo above herself._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of blood evolution~_**

 _The red halo turns into Wolfie's red Iris as the camera zooms out revealing the pool of blood beneath the Grimm. before he dissolves into a shadow and to the side._

 ** _~In time your heart will open minds~_**

 _The shadow flows beneath Ruby cloak who is standing with her team, a conflicted expression on her face. Soon though it is replaced with a look of determination as the Camera pans once more._

 ** _~A Story will be told~_**

 _When the camera settles on Ruby's viewpoint we see Amber kneeling before Cinder, before the camera zooms back and her surroundings turn into the vault beneath Beacon._

 ** _~And Victory is in a Simple Soul~_**

 _We see a final shot of a young Ruby hugging her family, which reveals itself to be an old picture in Salem's Hand who is enjoying tea served by Neo._

The night sky was always something Blake had in common with it. It was dark, silent, kept to itself. Everything around it was louder because the night never made a sound, it just kept quiet as things passed around it. It didn't care about what happened around it, it didn't care if there were millions of little specks in the sky it never met before. It was just Alone.

It was the same lifestyle Blake came to adapt to quickly. So many things had happened within the last several years of her life, more than half of which affected thousands of people, Humans and Faunus alike. Fights had broken out, neighborhoods became turf wars, and not a day went by where someone disappeared who just happened to be discriminatory against the Faunus. It's like Heaven having fallen from grace, the White Fang has become less than a shadow of it's former self since Blake became a part of it.

The only thing helping her these days was her ranking within the White Fang itself. That title held a lot of weight around the chain of commands. She held as much authority as most of the high-level generals and captains within the White Fang, the leader being one of the only few that hold authority above her. Because of her blessed status, she was capable of mitigating any and all damages caused by the White Fang while keeping a status quota of getting her work done at the ams time, less her lack of work result in a demotion or suspicion to her plans. She could mitigate the damages they caused to property, divert attention from innocence who were just related to those being discriminatory while not being discriminatory themselves, and she could help provide better cover and discretion for the Faunus working under her.

Of course, that didn't entirely absolve her of everything. She was forced to watch every fire that burned, she oversaw the brute force used against humans to set them right, and saw the fear instilled in their eyes every time they gazed upon her. It sickened her to see all their fears welling up like that, the screams and cries of panic every time a Faunus of the White Fang approached. She needed to discover a way to fix the White Fang and set it back on the path that the White Fang originally started on. Otherwise the world would only know to fear the Faunus, not respect them.

As such, the cover of allegiance was what she was under at this very moment. She wasn't wearing all the clothing she usually did, save for her long black stalking and white shorts. Her current outfit was that of a large black coat that stretched all the way down to her knees, the sleeves of her arms stretching to her wrist. It was skin tight so there was no issue of flexibility or dependance, and useful for infiltrating any security during the night. Along with the black fingerless gloves she wore, she usually seen as nothing more than a passing shadow during the operations, always finishing her work with quick efficiency without anyone else seeing her. The outfit also allowed her to change in and out of her clothes quickly, simply needing to don the black overcoat and her gloves whenever necessary.

And along her neck, attached to simple string, was the mask of the White Fang, streaked along the edges of it with Crimson Red unlike the many masks given to initiates. It was a symbol of her role, status, and ranking within the White Fang, and a symbol of where she stood within the White Fang.

It was here where she stood, atop the warehouse's roof near the docks, where she could oversee the operations. At present, the docks were clear, just as it should've been. The informant wasn't meeting for almost another hour, but she had to be sure the coast remained clear until the time of their arrival. The last thing she wanted was a passing officer or local to wander around here when the meeting was taking place. It wouldn't look very good if the White Fang wasn't capable of managing security in front of the mysterious informant who was their new ally.

"Yo, did I miss any-"

 _ ***Swiff***_

"-thing?" Sun froze nervously, raising his hands up as Blake suddenly spun around with her Katana aiming at his throat. He was even more surprised at her new getup, especially the mask she threw over her face quickly. Every nerve that stood on her ends ready to threaten the mysterious stranger quickly disappeared, letting out a silent gasp as he saw the person who snuck behind her. It was also that he noticed a little fury thing wrapped around Blake's waist. "Hey, you got a tail too?"

"Sun?" Her sense of relief was matched by the irritation that was growing steadily as she removed her mask. "What the heck are you doing here?"

"What? I was just taking a nightly stroll and random and happened to notice ya here." He answered with a cheeky grin.

"Sun, I said to let me deal with this!" It was clear she was not amused. "Do you understand how much trouble you'll be in if you get caught tonight? How much trouble it'l cause me if you get caught!?"

"Hey, I'm sorry, I'm just trying to help. You can't just expect me to sit on the sides and watch the whole thing." He replied crossing his arms. "Besides, you're already hanging by a thread if they found out you were undercover. Do any of your other friends know about this?"

"Mmh..." He could tell just by the clench of her fist what the answer was. "They don't need to be involved."

"Are you kidding? You have a whole team that looks out for you! If you really haven't been back to your school since yesterday, they're probably out looking for you right now!" Yeah, like any of that mattered anymore. It didn't matter to her if everyone forgave her or not for her argument with Weiss. How was she supposed to face everyone again after what happened, after practically assaulting Weiss like that? It's not like she was going to stay away from Beacon forever, far from it! She just couldn't go back at this time until the air cleared with everyone, at least until the weekend neared it's end at the very least. "You should just go back and make up, forget about this White Fang stuff."

"I can't forget about it, Sun!" She grumbled.

"Why not?"

"Because I'm the reason that it-!" She nearly lost it again. It was the ghost that always haunted over her, the despair she felt every time she said anything about the White Fang. It wouldn't exist without the other, and the White Fang wouldn't be where they were now without Blake's past. "...I just need to do this, Sun. I have to make up for something I can never fix. Even if I end up losing my life through doing this, at least I can die without any regrets. So... Just get out of here, alright Sun? ...Sun?" She was drawn to the look on his face after noticing his silence. His own attention was drawn away from her as she followed his gaze to the docks down below, seeing something she wasn't expecting.

Trucks. Warehouse Trucks. Trucks the White Fang had collected during their many heists throughout the city, and the very ones Blake helped commandeer throughout her time in Vale. Along with this was the very interesting arrival of a loading ship slowly settling into the docks themselves, several other White Fang members hastily transporting the goods from the ship to the trucks and vice versa. And to only add more confusion to the mix, along with everything else, there was a small helicarrier landing along the docks, setting down at the docks as more Faunus exited the vehicle.

"Guess your White Fang buddies are busy at work, huh?" Sun commented as he watched.

"What... This isn't..."

"What's wrong?

"They weren't supposed to show up for another hour!" Blake screeched, wasting no time to put her mask back on and jump to the ground itself. Sun watched from where he was to see whatever scene unfolded before him. He wanted to help with anything possible, but he was smart enough not to jump in after her while she was in the middle of her work.

As for Blake herself, she was completely dumbfounded. There were numerous times she hit roadblocks while running the White Fang she had control over. There were often heists or riots that didn't turn out in their favor, several times they needed to pull back or regroup later, and other times they needed to rescue allies who've been captured. Those were the kind of things she could handle since she expected them more than half the time. This was entirely something else.

This was one of those few rare new things that've never happened before. This was a new group of White Fang members arriving at a spot they weren't supposed to.

"Hey!" Blake called out as she approached. The White Fang who raised their guns were just as quick to lower them upon seeing the fellow Faunus approach, mask, ears, tail, and all.

"Captain!" One of the masked Faunus greeted, saluting with the others following suit.

"What's going on here? You weren't supposed to reconvene for another hour!" Blake spoke with an authoritative tone.

"W-We know, Captain. We were just following along with orders." The Faunus replied nervously. To her friends, Blake was a quiet and gentle person who went along with the crowd. To those who've heard tale in the White Fang, she was as ruthless and deceptive as they came, only second to another Captain himself.

Clearly they didn't know the real Blake.

"What orders? I didn't give any orders!" She hissed, the Faunus she was talking to nearly flinching from shock.

"That would be my orders, sorry." A voice suddenly spoke out, catching Blake by surprise. It was one she remembered, one she hadn't heard for many years. Looking back at the helicarrier, she could only stare as the lone figure walked from the flying machine, casually grinning with the occasional twirl of his cane. This was Roman Torchwick. "Sorry for all the trouble, I was just handling certain matters on my end of the city." He apologized, walking right up to the stunned Blake herself and offering a hand. "I don't think introductions are necessary, but just as a show of decency, the name's Roman Torchwick." He greeted.

There were too many thoughts rolling in Blake's mind at the moment. She knew about Roman Torchwick. She remembered about Roman Torchwick. She knew everything from his ups and downs, strengths and weakness, and his very shrewd business practices in the criminal underworld. She knew as much that he would be in this very city, alongside the White Fang who continued to hit the shops and businesses along with the rest of the criminals of Vale. The one thing she didn't know, however, was his role as the informant.

That was something she couldn't allow.

"...Hello?" Roman grumbled, flexing his fingers to emphasize. "Hey, you in there? Jeez is this guy slow or somethi-" Blake cut him off as he waved his hand playfully in front of her. In one swift motion, she threw his waving hand around his own neck as she placed the edge of her Katana against him, pinning her face right next to hi.

"What are you doing here?!" She asked.

"Tch, didn't anyone teach you some manners, girly?" He shot back. Just as quickly as she did, in one quick spin of his cane, he ignited a small blinding flash right between both their faces, being the only one quick enough to turn away in time, disorienting her long enough for him to kick the back of her legs and kneeling her. With the many tricks that came along with his cane, he detached the handle from the base of his cane as it carried a long thin rope around it, wrapping it quickly around her neck in a quick loop as it nearly suffocated her. The rope was harshly pinned against her neck, making her practically gag for air as she tried grasping for the increasingly tight rope pinned around her neck. "Now is this any way to start off an introduction?" He teased.

 _*click*_

It was at that time he heard the sound of several clicks going off. Apparently attacking one of their Captains didn't settle right with the rest of the Faunus as several of them turned off the safeties to their guns, all taking aim at the human with itchy trigger fingers.

"Hmph. Not alotta manners between you guys, huh?" To be fair, he'd prefer anyone doing the same for him if he suddenly found himself being choked while several of his armed thugs were around him. Sadly he didn't think to bring any human thugs along the way, figuring a bunch of animals would be easier to deal with. "Do yourself a favor and tell the bunch to lower their weapons." He ordered as he released the rope from Blake's neck, the girl gasping as air filled her lungs again.

"Wh..." She panted. "What are you doing here?"

"What? Did someone not give you the memo?" He asked as she slowly got back to her feet. "I'm the new best friend who's been giving you information for the past several weeks."

"Y-You..." She refused to believe it, still rubbing her neck. "You're the informant?"

"What? Were you expecting Santa Clause?" He joked. "Anyway, like I said, sorry for the early appearance here." He continued as he walked along the docks with Blake following behind. "I was just finishing up my work for the week, and we needed a quick change of location at the last minute. Some idiot ended up giving our place away to the cops, so we're relocating. We're just meeting up here quick to take stock of the inventory, then moving it at the other end of the city."

"I thought you were supposed to be some criminal mastermind or something?" Blake retorted. Instead of getting angry or irritated at the insult, he just chuckled as he grinned back.

"I am the mastermind, kid. I just can't be held responsible for how stupid other people are." He took the time to look over her outfit, noticing how it varied compared to the rest of the White Fang. "You know you might want to avoid the whole Drag Queen outfit, kid. Take it from an expert, never look like the most important figure in a gang. Otherwise cops are gonna tell who's running the-" He stopped. His eyes laid on the sight of a certain piece of the fellow Faunus that was wrapped around her waist, something way too familiar. "That tail..." His words made Blake's chest beat rampantly, knowing what was coming." Take off the Mask."

She couldn't refuse. If it was just them at the spot, she would love nothing more than to run away from the scene, beat him into submission, or just pretend things were fine while ignoring his orders. But that was the price that came with having an audience. If any one of them caught word that she refused to obey the assistance of someone trying to help the White Fang, that put her at risk of being exposed as a double agent. She needed her cover at all cost, and she refused to let something as simple as a little recognition get in the way of that. With a heavy heart, an a mental curse to herself, she slowly removed the mask covering her eyes, the grin on Roman's face growing along with the revelation.

"I don't believe it...Tch...pffft heheheh..." There it was, the expected chortle of a criminal underworld gang leader. Everything just ended up being so much better with each passing minute. He got to meet his new allies early, got to show the group who was really in charge around here, and now he was greeted with a familiar face. "This just gets better and better." He pretended to wipe away a tear of happiness. "It's been a while, kitty cat."

And there went any hope she had of him not recognizing her. He could've thought of her as any other person in the world or mistake her for someone else. Unfortunately, the familiar nickname of kitty cat, something he used to call her for awhile since Ruby tended to call her "kitty girl" when she was a toddler. "Do NOT call me that." She wasn't about to let herself be insulted while she was a high ranking of the White Fang.

It was another thing she couldn't afford.

"Aww c'mon, where's your sense of humor? I thought you'd be more excited to see Uncle Roman again." He teased again. As expected, several of the other Faunus gave one another confused shrugs, wondering what they were talking about. "I really am glad you're here. This just makes everything so much easier on my end."

"Like what?" She tightened the grip on her katana.

"Don't be so testy, squirt. This is makes things easier for everyone! You, me, the kid, my partner-"

"The kid?" Blake questioned for a single second. "Wait, are you... are you talking about Ruby?" That couldn't be right, could it? What did she have to do with anything?

"What? She didn't tell you what she's doing at the academy?" He was actually more surprised with that than any. "Honestly I'm a little surprised. I figured she'd be more than willing to tell you of anyone."

"Geh, what are you talking about? What does Ruby have to do with anything?" Expecting a response, she just watched as Roman lowered the tip of his hat a little with a sigh.

"Huff, truthfully, I don't know. They keep me in the dark about a lot of things lately. I barely see Neo anymore, and even she doesn't tell me much like she used to."

Well there was another name she hadn't heard in awhile. Out of the many possible people she's met tonight, she almost forgot about the loving older sister that was Neo. She didn't know if she was actually adopted like Ruby was, only that she's cared for Ruby all her life.

"But enough about the touchy stuff, let's talk about the future!" He suggested, pushing off the past. "I think we got a very good future ahead of us, girly. The both of us, the other animals, we'll be living the easy life if you play your cards right!"

"Me?" She hissed as she raised her Katana at him again. "What makes you think I'll do any sort of work with you?"

"Well, if family doesn't cut it for you, I figured you'd be smart enough to choose to if it meant keeping your secret." He sneered. "I really don't think you'd want your favorite little sister to find out about you-know-what."

"You think..." Her hand trembled. Not of fear, but anger. "You think I'll care if you tell her I'm one of the leaders of the White Fang?" A tear of anger ran down her cheek, Roman growing a little curious as he watched her response. "Go ahead. Tell her. Tell her I'm helping lead the White Fang and I know she'll still accept me!"

It's one of the few things that mattered to her anymore. She cared about Ruby. She was a sister to the young White Fang member, and she'd be willing to do anything for the young Ruby. She didn't care if Ruby found out, she'd just tell her the truth! She would tell her that she's in it just to help fix it and restore it to what it once was, to what Ruby and Blake used to know it as and wanted to join when they were kids. She would tell her everything because she knew who Ruby was. She was a kind and caring person who took other peoples' feelings into consideration before her own, and always looked for the good in people than the bad.

She was the perfect example of humanity, what it should be. Just a kind, caring, person.

"I don't care what you have to tell her, Roman. She'll believe what I have to tell her... I'm sure of it..."

"..Tch...heh...heheheh... Ahahahahaha!" Roman bursted with laughter, actually holding himself as he laughed. One of the many things learned was to know what to fear. She feared the authorities when she worked. She feared the idea of her identity being exposed. She feared what would happen to her if Ruby didn't accept her as a member of the White Fang, and the minuscule ounce of doubt that came with it. Above all that though, the one thing she absolutely learned to fear, was the sight of a crime boss laughing like this. This was terror. "Hahahaha, oh my god, you're making this too easy..."

"Tell me what's so funny!" Blake demanded, waiting for him to collect himself again.

"You are, that's what! You think your dumb little position was what I was referring to?" Her look of stunned confusion was all he needed. With a flick of his cane, much like before, he shot the handle towards her as it wrapped around her neck, attaching to the small rope it connected to in a loop, and reeling her in again. Just like last time, this was followed with the Faunus taking aim once again, only this time with much more hesitation. Getting reported for accidentally shooting the captain of a squad didn't look too good on someone's resume.

As for what they were talking about remained a mystery. Sun couldn't do anything to help until he knew it was absolutely necessary, on a life in danger kind of level. Even from where he stood, he could practically feel a small glimpse of the emotions coming off of her, the anger built inside of her. Looking ever so closer, he saw it. From the anger that built in the depths of her mind, all rage and frustration was slowly replaced as Roman whispered in her ears. After ten seconds had passed, all sense of rage was replaced with an imminent look of fear, one of devastation and discord rising from the depths of her heart. Roman just said something to her that shook her at her core, and terrified her to no end.

He was glad she finally got the picture of who was in charge here.

"N-No..." She squeaked. Roman grinned as he released her from his cane again, watching her stumble as she walked back a few steps. "Y-You... H-Ho... H-How do you... How do you know that?!"

"Because girly," he grinned to her from the small peek under his hood, "you just confirmed it."

Stunned. That was all she was at this point. That was all she was going to be forevermore.

He just pulled the Ultimate of tricks out of his hat, the greatest blunders of her own life. By admitting that he knew something he shouldn't, Blake just revealed how his words were true. That was more shocking than the fact he was aware of it at all.

How could he be?! There was no way he could've ever found out, no way he should ever know about it! She was careful when she did it, careful every day after committing it too! She was resourceful, made sure not to arouse suspicion, did everything in her power to keep from being found out, and it was all for nothing! In fact, it was now less than nothing, because her own stupidity just confirmed something she dreaded hearing the most. Because of herself, she no longer had a means to argue with anything he just said.

He owned her.

"It'd be a shamed if Ruby found _that_ out, huh? So I think you should be a good little kitty when master gives you an order." He said looking around. "Like for starters, having these fine young gentlemen lowering their weapons." There wasn't even hesitation. With a simple raise of her hand, they all uneasily complied as their weapons lowered. "Hmm interesting... Now, let's try the next level. Kneel."

There was hesitation on her end. Kneeling was a sign of respect to someone else when a member of the White Fang did it. If a fellow White Fang did it though to another human, especially to a crime lord at that, it would be considered something disgraceful. Honor was nothing Blake worried about, but it was something she needed to keep in appearance of her peers, less the words of doubt spread within the inner circle.

"I said-" He didn't have to repeat it to the end. With a mere grunt on her end, Blake complied once more as she kneeled onto her right leg, lowering her head respectfully. The members around her became all the more questionable at her strange and erratic behavior, yet remained too respectful to say anything. "That's a good cat." He kneeled in front of her. "Just keep being the obedient little cat you are, and everyone will be happier for it." He instructed standing up.

His anger wasn't misplaced, that much she knew. He had every reason to have whatever anger he had against her at this point, and had all the fear instilled within her to obey his every word. There was no disobeying anything he said. If she didn't comply, he would rat her out. If he refused his orders, he would set things straight. If she tried anything to stop him, he would literally be a scroll call away from telling Ruby everything he knew. There was no arguing with anything he said, no disobeying anything he wanted.

He owned her.

"Now, let's see how well kitty's assistance's are." He clicked his fingers before pointing to one of the four nearby Faunus. "You, shoot her."

"W-What?" He stammered, unsure if he heard correctly, and more unsure of whether to comply.

"In the shoulder you idiot." He clarified looking back to Blake. She wouldn't get severely injured thanks to her aura, but it was definitely gonna hurt some. Taking a blast from a gun at close range like this for any hunter would probably be the equivalent of a Bee Sting- brief yet painful. "Unless of course a certain cat doesn't want her shots..."

"Do it." Blake ordered looking back. The Fauns was at a cross. He couldn't disobey a direct order and he couldn't be expected to shoot his fellow captain! It didn't matter what protocol or orders went out. If word got out that a low ranking grunt shot the captain his head would be rolling down the hills by the evening, and that's if he was lucky.

"B-But Captain-"

"Do it!" She shouted.

He had to. No matter what his consciousness told him, he had to do it. Shooting a Captain was unforgivable no matter the reason, but if Blake was as merciful as rumors said, she might not report him on the matter, and if this wasn't a horrible prank to get him in trouble by shooting her, then he had nothing to fear. Besides, it was just an order right? It's not like he could actually get into trouble if he was just following an order. Maybe if he was lucky, she'd even promote him for it.

Either way, it would definitely help her with her cover as well. She was working under the guise of a Huntress, according to the reports she's given on her time away from them, and that was their best way to keep a low profile. Nobody would suspect a White Fang member in the Academy, and if the same student returned tonight with an injury like this while no White Fang activity was going around tonight, that would improve their secrecy. Nobody would know how else she obtained the injury if no crime occurred during the night.

Regardless, it was an order, and he was obedient. With mild hesitation and slight twitchiness, he slowly raised the gun to her, aiming it at the right shoulder. As with most automatic weapons, he needed to be sure to just flick his finger on the trigger without holding it down. Otherwise no amount of aura would keep her safe from this close range. Blake herself just closed her eyes, squeezing her eyelids tightly as she braced for the gunshot. It was definitely going to be sore in the morn-

"HrrrrraAAAHHHHHHH!" Nora shouted fiercely as she crashed her hammer between the gunman and Blake, blasting the assailant back along with the other several goons. Blake's surprise was beyond anything she ever felt before. It was mixed with partial relief and fear of her own identity being discovered. Thankfully the mask was stowed away in her large coat pockets. Now all she needed to do was think of a clever excuse to why she was wearing this strange outfit. "Phew... Oh hey Blake! You just get back from Rave Party or something?"

...Oh, right, she forgot. This was Nora.

Her brief smile quickly turned to anger as she grabbed her hammer again, seeing the king of crime standing ahead of them. If Roman was as clever as she knew him to be, she knew exactly how he was going to respond to this situation.

"Tch, you kids just won't stop getting in the way of my business, will ya?" He scoffed taking aim directly at Blake's head. With her natural quick reflexes, Blake doubled back as her shadow took the force of the blast, slashing at Roman quickly which he deflected in turn. As long as he was of use to her, he wasn't going to expose her secret to anyone else. That's why it was more important for him to feign their hatred for each other than not.

As he continued dancing with the blade that swung at him, he found himself taking another quick leap backwards as Sun suddenly descended from the sky, trying to strike him with his Bo Staff. This surprising annoyance did nothing for Roman's interest, it only pissed him off more knowing that was two unexpected details Blake didn't mention. "Can I hit this guy now?" Sun asked back with a small grin.

Blake looked at Roman's eyes for a split second. They needed to fight to keep up appearances. They needed to do this to prove Blake was trying to stop the scene and wasn't a part of the White Fang. Any and all members who saw Blake without her mask and in the presence of others already knew the protocols to go along with this. They were forced to fight back with the best of their abilities as if they were actual enemies, all for the sake of keeping up appearances. Blake new full well that, at the present, she and Roman were nothing more than enemies, ones who needed to hit at each other until one side managed to get away. She knew he had to get away for the time being.

But she was going to enjoy every second she hit him.

"Yes."

 _ **(A/N: It is recommended to start listening to From Shadows on youtube while watching the following scenes.)**_

There was no room for words. Blake lunged for him with Katana in hand as he barely blocked in time, kicking her back enough as he took another shot at the cat Faunus almost immediately. Like before this was met with her dashing out of the blast with her shadows, swiftly dodging to the sides as he kept trying to shoot her until she got close again for another strike.

The two exchanged multiple blows to one another as each side deflected every strike. Roman wasn't a Hunter, but he had enough personal experience and expertise to deal with the Huntress in training. Every strike she attempted ended with the same blow being thrown right back at her one after the other.

Unlike Blake, every time he managed to deflect an attack, he used his quick wits to strike at her, kicking at her when she tried to strike over the head and punching her face every time he parried a blow from below. He was gaining the advantage quickly as his quick strikes reduced her aura little by little, the next oncoming strike which barely missed his head being countered by a blast from his cane directly at her chest. The impact was forceful enough to send her flying back several yards, her reflexes being the only thing keeping her on her feet.

At the same time, Nora was dealing with her own bit of trouble as she dealt with the numerous Faunus that kept arriving at the scene. While their firepower mattered little to the hammer-wielding Valkyrie, it was the amount of White Fang that kept arriving at the scene that proved problematic. Every time she managed to knock one down with her weapon, two more took their place. By this point she found herself surrounded by at least eight different White Fang members thinking they had the advantage due to the numbers.

They were sadly wrong.

The sight of such danger just excited Nora, finding fun at how many of these criminals thought they had the upper hand. Blasting at the ground with her hammer she managed to easily avoid the next barrage of bullets including several grenade launches that came from the pump action of their weaponry. The White Fang were misguided in their view as they blasted where she once stood, having no idea where she went to until she came colliding foot first into the Faunus at the far back of the group.

The group's quick reactions were too slow to deal with the monstrous girl as she roared with excitement. She immediately charged headfirst into the crowd as she took them out one after the other. The first one after was easily dispatched with the swing of her hammer to the side of his stomach, ducking quickly after to avoid the oncoming fire. The next two to go down were the nitwits who tried to get the jump on her. They charged bravely, albeit stupidly, into the girl as they attempted to either grapple her or knock her off her feet so they could get a clear shot.

They were nothing but amateurs. With the second one that came after her, she deflected the blunt side of his weapon he tried to strike her with, kicking him in the stomach to which he doubled over. Coming along the third member tried the same thing from behind her. Nora easily saw this move coming as she just moved her head to the side before jabbing him in the gut with her elbow and throwing her fist back right into his face knocking him out cold.

The other four that charged her were smarter as they stayed in a bigger group, all raining bullets upon her in an attempt to stop the dangerous girl. Seeing the group cornered in one area, Nora grinned as she jumped atop the back of the Faunus doubledover and leapt into the sky. Changing her weapon quickly into the infamous grenade launcher she loved, she took several pot shots around the Faunus, being careful not to hit them directly, with each of the pink blasts shrouding the area around them in a pink haze and sending them into coughing fits. By the time any of them could see again it was already too late.

With a mighty roar and the swing of her hammer once more, she smacked all of them at once, striking the one at the right end first, then trailing along to the remaining four from the side until all of them were helpless to the hammer's ruthless power. And with a grin to all of them for a single second, she blasted them all into the ocean, helping them clean off whatever dirt and bruises they just obtained.

What a fun day for the Valkyrie. Even as the eighth member stupidly tried to get the last jump on her from behind, she didn't do anything more than jab her Hammer behind him, unaware that her mark was off by a few inches and ended up striking at his nether regions than his stomach. Either way, she was just satisfied with the fact he was out cold when she turned around again.

And wouldn't you know it? Ten more thugs were just running around the corner from the large shipping containers. This day just continued to get more fun!

On the other side of the battlefield, Blake and Sun were continuing to stand their own against Roman himself, No matter how much the odds were in their favor, Blake needed to be careful. She couldn't afford to show any signs of easing up with Nora around, and she couldn't back Roman into a corner that he couldn't escape from. It didn't matter how much their alliance meant, if Roman found himself cornered and caught, he would be all too eager to spill the beans about Blake's relation to the White Fang, and more than happy to divulge in her other secret.

The problem came due to Sun's persistence throughout the fight. He never gave Roman a single chance to counter him like Blake did. With every strike Roman countered, Sun pulled out another one of his own as he disassembled his nunchaku apart to blast at him with the shotgun-tipped barrels of his staff, reassembling it immediately after to land another strike in the hopes of knocking Roman off his feet, all to repeat the same process over and over again.

It was a split-second moment, but Blake took the opening she found. Upon finishing his latest counter, Blake immediately pushed Sun to the side as she jumped into the fray itself. With Blake's interference, Roman would be able to fight more effectively, especially since he didn't have to worry about her blasting him in the face upon every strike. And while he wasn't aware of her intentions, Sun was unable to join in the fray as he was already beset by several White Fang members jumping from incoming Helicarriers.

Like Nora, they were no match for Sun's athletic capabilities. The first two that jumped down were easily dispatched with several of the starting swipes he threw at them, blasting away a third with his Bo as he came from his right. The following two from the group came at him equipped with their own katanas, standard issue among the low-ranking Faunus. Even they proved ineffective though against Sun's onslaught, easily sweep kicking the first one and kicking him away while blocking the other Faunus out with his Bo. With the other three attempting to charge him, he simply knocked the other one off his feet before tossing him onto two of the three coming at him.

The last of the group was surprisingly a little bit trickier than the rest before him. He adapted quickly to Sun's fighting techniques with his own katana, deflecting each strike from the Bo with his sword, and every time he detached it for a followup strike, he blocked with his own arm or leg. Sun had to admit, for one of the cannon fodders that kept charging after him, he proved the most fun!

At least until Sun pulled off the same trick as the last one, sweeping him off his feet and using his Bo to launch him into an oncoming hurdle of fellow grunts. It was a nice distraction while it lasted.

"You know, you should consider hitting your friends once in awhile." Roman mumbled as he and Blake clashed their weapons again. "I might find it funny."

"I am not your entertainment!" She growled back grinding her teeth, pushing herself away from him. With the distance spread between them, Roman grinned as he took aim at the sky above her.

Or at least what she assumed was the sky above. She was too slow in following along the blast to react in time. Right when her eyes finally reached the sky above them, she saw one of the many large containers plummeting down after the crane was shot off by Roman's explosive bullet. By the time her brain factored in the oncoming strike it would've been too late. She was about to be crushed, and Roman might've miscalculated the time it was gonna take her to respond.

It was only thanks to Fate's divine intervention that something descended upon the young cat Faunus and saved her in time.

Or in this case, something rose from the ground, specifically several sharpened pillars of ice, each one of them thick enough and strong enough to penetrate the tons of steel and stop it in midair.

"You know," the sound of the familiar voice took Blake by surprise, "I get you're trying to prove that not all Faunus are riff raff, but these guys seriously aren't helping with that."

"Weiss?" She couldn't believe it! At this point in time, Weiss would've been the very last person she'd ever expect to help her.

"Don't think I did that for your sake," she huffed, turning her blade towards Roman himself, "I just can't tolerate criminals harming other people."

"People?" That was the word Blake caught onto the most. The fact that Weiss grew a small blush to her face while ignoring the Faunus just proved that. It was enough for her to accept without prying too much into it.

She called her, a Faunus, a person. That was enough after all that's happened within the last two days.

"Ugh, enough with the mushy crap." Roman groaned rolling his eyes. "I'd really love to stay and chat, but I got a schedule to keep up." He wasn't worth their time, none of them were. So with the simple click of his fingers, several more Helicarriers showed up. The two weren't given a single moment to themselves as dozens of the White Fang already poured out of the aircrafts, all while Roman himself walked away casually to one of the landed vehicles.

"Roman!" Blake's shouts of anger went unheard as he went on, a pool of guards streaming past him as Blake and Weiss were forced to defend themselves.

Lucily with the two expert Huntresses back to back, they were little less than a bunch of nuisances. One after the other the two girls picked off the oncoming guards that attempted to jump them at every turn. Each of Blake's shadow drops lead her countering every guard with a single kick to the side. And for every opponent this took out, Weiss followed up with her own counters, using her glyphs to empower her leaps and deflect the bullets that came raining down on her and Blake.

With the soldiers continuing to come in, Weiss saw the opportunity to put the odds in their favor for the remainder of the fight. Clearing out the space around her with the blast of another glyph, she summoned two more pillars of Ice, ones she shot into the sky like the other ones that saved Blake. Unlike those, these two shot into the opposite wings of two helicarriers, causing them to slide from the tips of their planes right into each other. It wasn't forceful enough to cause some devastating explosion or anything, but it did help in dropping the remaining White Fang member from the sides of the ship, the members flailing about and landing atop of one another.

That was the final piece Weiss and Blake needed to finish this fight. With a short nod to each other, again once the pathway was clear, Weiss created a final pillar of eye directed at a 45* angle, just far enough to reach the first of the falling crowd of people. Leaving a final shadow where she stood, Blake dashed up the long slope of ice heading straight towards the raining men. With one grand leap, in the blink of an eye, she slashed each and every man that fell above her, just enough to knock them out cold, and precise enough to destroy each of the guns or weaponry they were carrying. Gravity did the rest for the remaining ones,

"These kids keep getting weirder..." Roman shook his head as he took one of the last remaining helicarriers remaining with his subordinates. He didn't need to worry about the process or the shipments or anything else like that. He had more than enough back at he hideout to continue operations, and, as far as he was concerned, he just gained a valuable asset.

He knew that. Blake knew that. The only ones who didn't know that were Weiss, Sun, and Nora who watched alongside her as he flew away as dawn began to wasn't a victory in any way for them.

This was Roman's victory tonight.

...

...

The half hour that followed was filled with nothing but silence for the remaining authorities came dutifully as they should just as the last of the two groups, this case being Yang and Pyrrha, arrived at the scene. The remaining students rounded up the rest of the White Fang members, all of them gave a silent stare to Blake as she helped restrain and escort them to the patrol cars and trucks that came to arrest them.

Each of them were given a silent apology from their Captain, one that each of them knew of and mentally nodded to in respect. Regardless of where they were going, they all held respect for their fellow Captain. That was one thing he never could take away even if he controlled her.

As the cops continued to arrest dozens upon dozens of the Faunus, the gang kept clear of Weiss and Blake, the two girls staring at each other with different expressions; Weiss' was filled with irritation, and Blake's was still filling with regret. It's been a long two days for the two girls, both their teammates. Everything was at a standstill at this point, and whatever happened beyond here was going to be remembered for the rest of their school lives.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, Weiss finally stepped forth. Any worries and concerns Nora had were put on hold as Pyrrha grabbed her by the elbow. She could only give her a silent shake of the head as the two looked back. Whatever was about to happen had to be settled between the two in whatever way they saw best.

That came in the form of Weiss raising her palm up to Blake's face, the cat Faunus herself squeezing her eyes shut as she prepared for impact. This is where Weiss finally got even.

 _*Tap*_

...Yup, any second now... She was going to start with that small tap, and annnnnyyyy second after that, she was going to hurt her for real! It probably wouldn't be a simple slap either, she could expect the windup any minute now-

"You done?" Weiss' questioning caught her off guard, Blake opening her eyes with surprise and confusion.

"Huh?"

"I said are you done? Because quite frankly, I have something I need to say." Honestly, none of the others knew what was about to transpire either. Weiss looked ready to smack the living daylights out of her, she had every reason to up to this point. Nothing exactly good per se, just enough to reestablish their following argument the other day. Here, she just looked a little tense like she just got out of a gym. "I've been thinking about everything up to this point, and I've decided... I don't care."

"You don't care?" That could mean nearly anything coming from the leader of Team WYJR.

"No. I don't. I don't care about the argument, I don't care about your crazy getup right now, and... I don't care about the Faunus." Of course. There's the Weiss everyone loved and- "Whatever families out there that have one of their family members in the White Fang? They're not at fault, so they're not my concern anymore."

...Knew? That sounded almost...sympathetic, in some way. Which was saying a lot for her.

"I've done about a day's worth of thinking since I-... Since we've been looking for you. And I decided... Well... maybe you guys are troubled more than I've been giving you credit for. They have families and friends, loved ones, and for whatever reason, they still found it more than necessary to join someone like the White Fang. At first, I thought it might be simple greed on their parts or a lack of ethics."

"But... now I'm starting to think they've suffered a little more lately." She said gazing around the arrested Faunus. She looked closely at that vein look in their high, their loss of hope. It was relatable. "Maybe it's not all their fault either. They're just dealing with a bunch of problems themselves, not in a way I can say I support, but... you get the idea."

"Weiss..." Blake didn't know what to say, for reasons other than the obvious. She literally didn't know what to say! Weiss was being supportive and actually sympathetic to the Faunus for the first time since Blake could remember. The last thing she needed to do was say a single thing that could anger her again and ruin the moment.

"So... I guess...what I'm trying to say is... I'm sor-"

"Oh, we forgive ya Weiss!" Nora cheered throwing her arm around the girl's neck tightly. This grew nothing but looks of misbeliefs on everyone's faces, and a growing look of irritation on the Schnee girl herself. All the disbelief faces were filled with nothing but whiteness in their eyes and a gaping open mouth, all while Nora was looking around curiously at the strange faces everyone was making. "What's everyone looking like for?"

"Grrrr Nora, you ruined everything!" Yang grumbled, now putting the orange valkyrie in her own headlock. What might've seemed like a sudden bout of violence was, all in all, nothing more than simple fun between the two girls as the remaining members of both teams started bursting into chuckles.

This is nice. This is what the two teams used to be, what they would work hard on being. Just nothing more than a group of friends all having a few laughs here and there, sharing good and bad times. It was the way it was meant to be, and the way it should be. They might squabble here and there from time to time, but they loved each other, they were all one big family.

That's what Penny saw, anyways. Her and Glynda Goodwitch as they passed by in the nearby limousine. Like every time she was present, Glynda could be seen typing up reports and recordings of the battles the batch of students found themselves in.

As well as recordings of what transpired beforehand.

"I saw no need to interfere in their fighting. They seemed more than capable of handling things at present." Penny detailed with a nod.

"So miss Belladonna is within the White Fang too... just like Ozpin thought..." The teacher rubbed her chin as she watched the recording. She couldn't understand it. Ozpin had his suspicions, just like with Ruby, and just like her, he now had the proof he needed that could put her away. So why didn't he go along with it?

Granted, compared to what Ruby was going through, she was less of a worldly threat. That didn't completely absolve her of crime of course. The White Fang were still a threat across the entire world, there was no denying that. At least with them their targets were solely directed towards other humans, not all walks of life like the Grimm were.

"What exactly is Ozpin up to?" Glynda mumbled to herself before turning her attention to Penny. "And what about the other girl?"

"You mean my new friend? I have full trust in her capabilities." Penny smiled.

"I was referring to her as a whole. Do you think she is dangerous?" She took everything into account with Penny's reaction. From her attention, the lack of eye contact as she waited for her to respond, to the long pause she took as she processed the information within her head, every little detail that could affect her answer. The longer the pause, the more that said about Ruby's character.

"I have sensed and determined everything I could about my friend, Ruby. My final diagnosis..." She smiled to one of the many friends of her creator. "She is very troubled. But she is a very good friend. That's all I need to know."

"Hmm..." She trusted her. Perhaps all her friends trusted her. Maybe that's what made them so blind to the truth, blind to what was really going on around here. They were just children, so a part of that was understandable. But was it an excuse? Did it give them enough reason to leave Ruby alone for the time being? What was she to say?

All she knew was that time was needed to mend current wounds. This night would be the first of many problematic events to come for them. Their life, the life of every Hunter, was filled with hardship, trauma, and never ending despair. For now, she decided to simply let this be. Let the children have their smiles, let them be happy for possibly the last time.

Everyone was happy... except for Blake.

Her happiness would never come for the time ahead of her. All her time was going to be filled with nothing more than sorrow and despair for the nights to follow, all because of what Roman knew...

 _"You are, that's what! You think your dumb little position was what I was referring to?" Her look of stunned confusion was all he needed. With a flick of his cane, much like before, he shot the handle towards her as it wrapped around her neck, attaching to the small rope it connected to in a loop, and reeling her in again. Just like last time, this was followed with the Faunus taking aim once again, only this time with much more hesitation. Getting reported for accidentally shooting the captain of a squad didn't look too good on someone's resume._

 _"If you don't play ball, I'll tell Ruby who broke you two up apart years ago." He didn't give her a single second to reply to him as her eyes widened. "It's funny really. What took me so long to realize is that I was looking for equipment as a whole, something that could be easily contained in one's pocket... or that little backpack you kept bringing over. I never would've suspected someone of stealing a little handle or a piece of dust. Must've taken you over a year, huh? To gather just enough pieces here and there to start a revolt."_

That was the burden from this day forward. Forevermore, she would belong to Roman. She would be his eyes, ears, even his weapon if need be. She was nothing more than a slave from this day forward. And the only droplets of cheer that would lift her spirits up for now was-"

"Huh? H-Hey!" Blake yelled out, getting everyone's attention again. "Where's Ruby?"

...

...

 ***Boom!***

So much for keeping a low profile. This was it. This was the moment Ruby had waited for. With the hallways cleared, nothing stopped her from using her scythe to destroy the Elevator's flooring. It was a bit risky, especially if she ended up with the wrong elevator to begin with, yet fate seemed to be in her favor tonight. There it was, nearly thousands of feet below her, was that one bottomless void which would lead her to the maiden.

She had to be there, she just had to! Ruby destroyed the base of an elevator now. There was no going back from here on in, and every second she waited or delayed would bring her closer to getting caught. She wished she could say goodbye to her friends one more time, at least Blake of all people, as she stepped into the hole of the elevator shaft. There wasn't anything else to do at this point except descend into the abyss, one that would bring her to the fruition of her grand scheme, the one that would allow her to leave this accursed academy forever!

All she needed to do now was wait. Wait until she neared the bottom of the shaft's clearing, and pray that she'd find another entrance. With it being as deep as it was, it was almost impossible that there wasn't going to be an entrance waiting for her at the bottom. I mean if they built it all the way down there, then surely they must've had some means of getting back upstairs, right? And that would require them to have a room down there, at least a door that could lead them back up.

It was during this brief descent that some things floated through her mind. All the people she's met, all the friends she came to know. All in all, they weren't all as evil as she expected them to be. She supposed that was a given considering how big this place was, how big the world was. If one out of every one thousand new hunters were actually the good ones compared to the rest like Cardin, then she surmised that she drew the lucky end of the straw and found all of those that were. The seven friends she came to know of, they were possibly the only good ones within this entire academy full of evil. That much she could agree with.

Or maybe this place was starting to play tricks on her mind? She never would've thought this several months ago, so who's to say these thoughts were entirely hers? What if it was Ozpin's brainwashing that started to make her think this way? What if his evil brainwashing tried to turn her against her own family?!

No. That was out of the question, beyond a doubt. She was coming to the bottom of the large elevator shaft, and she was going to find the maiden. Then she was going to try and kill the maiden, all for her family's sake and that of the rest of the world. She was going to come back redeemed for her past failure, and no one was going to tell her otherwise!

Except for the increasing momentum as she descended towards the ground.

"Shoot!" Ruby quickly yelped as she pulled out her scythe. With a single swipe, she did what she could to pry into the metal walling of the surrounding shaft, hoping to slow down whatever descent she made into the chasm below. Unfortunately, that would prove futile in itself as she saw herself nearing the ground.

There was no room within this compact shaft to Summon Wolfie, not in the next ten seconds she had before hitting the bottom, and she couldn't use the fire of her scythe to blast herself below to slow the descent, there wouldn't be enough time to slow herself down safely in time. Thus, she found herself with only one other option.

"Konda!" Ruby shouted as she opened her cloak hastily. In a single second, a large black slithery appendage shot out from the darkness of her cloak, one that easily pierced the thick metal husks of the shaft with ease and precision. It only took a matter of two full seconds following this to halt Ruby's descent, just three yards away from reaching the floor's bottom with the combined efforts of her scythe and he mysterious Grimm. "Phew." She sighed in relief as the Grimm slowly lowered her the rest of the way down till her feet touched something solid. "Thanks Konda." She cooed as the snake approached her once more, giving off a pur-like shriek as it Ruby pet it under it's chin.

Konda. The first of many Grimm Ruby came to make during her time at Salem's Domain. She can still recall the time of when she made it, picturing everything that went through her mind when she thought about how to make it.

She needed to make something strong, or something sturdy. With that, she decided to do something with thick scales. Then she needed to think about how she was going to use that for combat. Wolfie was already large and strong, and since it was her first time making something, she needed something that was probably small too. Something small that could make itself bigger or longer when the time called for it. That's when she decided to make it something long like a Snake or a Cobra. The final piece of the puzzle came from how it would fight. It needed to be something sharp and deadly that could penetrate anything with it's small size. And that's where the mask came from, the last piece she needed to put together.

Konda had many uses that Ruby found incredibly useful later in her life. Most notably, it was a useful way of grabbing things or attacking things from afar if the situation ever called for it. Her incredibly sharpened tip allowed her to stab through solid rock without leaving so much as a crack along the edges, the hole left behind being completely smooth to the touch. It was also strong enough to lift up to five hundred pounds on it's own, making it useful for whenever she needed to grab at things or throw them. It acted almost like a third limb since she could summon it from her cloak, with Konda's quick speed, perhaps in part thanks to her smaller size, reacting quick enough.

It's size was still nothing to gawk at either. With the size of it's roundness, it was probably nearly the size of Ruby's head, being little under a foot in width. As for length, however, that was something Ruby could never figure out since she came into her life. The one thing she forgot to factor in was how long the Grimm itself could grow for, how long until it stopped growing. Considering the only thoughts consuming her mind at the time were making the best Grimm possible for her dear grandmother, Ruby hadn't really been paying attention to such details. All she got out of it was a snake that currently lengthed up to at least twenty five feet from the last time she measured.

That was three years ago.

At least she made sure to ensure one other detail to all of this.

"Good girl, Konda." Ruby cooed again patting it's head. With a small snake-like hiss, tickling under Ruby's chin, the snake returned to it's lair within Ruby's shadow, one it had to share housing space with given the dog. Konda had played her part successfully, and as far as Ruby concerned, the metal door which she could pry open with her fingertips, was the last thing standing between her and the ultimate prize.

There it was.

Within the gloriously large room that was the Vault of Beacon, she saw it. Step by step, she walked into the center of the room, heart being a mile a second as she took everything in. The room was massive for such a small prize, in terms of size that is, yet it didn't matter to Ruby when she saw what she saw.

"The Fall Maiden..." The ends of her skin crawled up alongside her as prepared.

This was it.

This was FINALLY it!

Everything. Everything she had worked hard for, worked towards completing, every reason she had to come to this godforsaken place, was right in front of her.

She smiled. For the first time in awhile, she smiled a legitimate smile. No more false smiles, no more cheesy speeches, nothing to get in her way. In front of her, she saw the Fall Maiden, trapped within some strange machine as she appeared to be resting. She guessed that was a given thanks to the intense fight her mother and so-called step siblings put her through.

Maybe it was just a really comfy bed. Maybe it was just some strange tanning booth. Ruby didn't know and she didn't care. All she cared about was this moment, right here, right now.

"I can end it all here..." She mumbled, slowly reaching behind her back and preparing to grab her weapon.

It was over. It was finally over. Goodbye Beacon Academy. Goodbye Vale. Goodbye... See you later, Blake. And most importantly, goodbye-

"What are you doing down here?"

"..."

No. It couldn't be. It just couldn't. No. Scratch that. It could.

With the sudden drop of temperature, with all excitement suddenly flushed out of her system, Ruby found herself frozen for the first time since coming here in absolute fear. Yet, for some reason, she turned around. Every fiber of her being was telling her not to, but she did it anyway. She turned around. And that when she saw him staring back.

Professor Ozpin.

...

...

...

 _ **A/N: Haha! Foolled Yaaaaaa ^^! Lol, I'm sorry for the blatant lie about what Blake's secret was going to be. Turns out, Nightmare WAS right and I was rather shocked when he said it ^^ As you can see, at least I hope you get, I lied about it being the correct answer to keep other people off track. If I confirmed his idea that obviously would've made it suck later on, and if I ignored it people might've gotten the idea (correctly) that it WAS Blake's secret that Blake kept hidden.**_

 _ **So I decided to pull something of a Triple Twist! I say it's going to be something, then I say it isn't going to be that something, and then later on I reveal it WAS that something ^^ Basically just a loop to throw the guys off till the posting and to keep the surprise larger than it would've been. And as you can see, my twist ultimately worked ^^ Haha! Haaaaaaaaaaaaa I'm gonna lose my fans for this Xo...Sorry nightmare XP**_

 _ **Lol, but anyway, yeah. Thank you all so much for supporting me up to this point in the series. My work is only here because you guys have been encouraging me and supporting me since day one. This fanfic is nothing more than what you guys came to make of it, and what you guys gathered your support for! I have no words to describe the immense thanks I have for you guys and your appreciation.**_

 _ **With that said, I might be slowing down a bit for the writing. Nothing personal or worrying, I just need to focus on school a bit more than not. Because I say this, I don't mean I'm gonna stop willy nilly like that for no apparent reason, I'm just going to post a bit less frequently to keep the stress off of myself, so posts might come down to weekly intervals for awhile unless I have a day off or something to myself for a bit. I don't know, just know my updates might slow for a bit, and I plan on taking it somewhat easy.**_

 _ **No worries though, I'll pop in a few fun chapters just to keep the energy flowing for the time being. You never know ^^ just like I don't know how much backlash this chapter is going to bring me XP...**_

 _ **So once again, thank you all for your continued support! If you enjoyed, please leave a like, fav, follow, and review, and hope to see you soon ^^!**_


	47. Vol 1 Final Interlude: Mission Success?

**_A/N: 5.7K Pre-A/N's._**

 ** _Chapter might be off a little all things considered. I need to reread my own work to get a grasp on how i used to write, it should help a lot ^^... I hope..._**

 ** _Also...This chapter is going to hurt with the feedback X/. I ask everyone to read the 2nd author's note at the end after this because I don't have a choice given the reception to this point._**

 ** _..._**

 ** _..._**

 ** _..._**

 ** _~This will be the day we waited for~_**

 _Cinder and salem are seen standing on a balcony on the side of the latter's home looking out in the distance to where Vale would be. As they look up to a Nevermore flying overhead, the camera pans up as well, showing an orange sky that slowly turns blue._

 ** _~This will be the day we open up the door~_**

 _Returning back down from its view of the sky, we see Ruby opening the door to Beacon's main hall, Wolfie peaking out behind her, Blake standing next to her, oblivious to the Grimm's presence._

 ** _~I don't wanna hear your absolution~_**

 _The Camera 'flies' through the hallways until it settles on Ozpin going through illegible notes on his scroll next to a photo of young miss Fall._

 ** _~Hope your ready for a revolution~_**

 _Outside his window, WYJR can be seen standing together. As the screen is overtaken by a storm of white petals, Weiss pushes Jaune a bit away._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of new solutions~_**

 _One of the petals remain before a black background and is revealed to be Ruby as she pulls out [insert weapon name] and starts twirling her Scythe around, leaving a burning crimson Halo above herself._

 ** _~Welcome to a world of blood evolution~_**

 _The red halo turns into Wolfie's red Iris as the camera zooms out revealing the pool of blood beneath the Grimm. before he dissolves into a shadow and to the side._

 ** _~In time your heart will open minds~_**

 _The shadow flows beneath Ruby cloak who is standing with her team, a conflicted expression on her face. Soon though it is replaced with a look of determination as the Camera pans once more._

 ** _~A Story will be told~_**

 _When the camera settles on Ruby's viewpoint we see Amber kneeling before Cinder, before the camera zooms back and her surroundings turn into the vault beneath Beacon._

 ** _~And Victory is in a Simple Soul~_**

 _We see a final shot of a young Ruby hugging her family, which reveals itself to be an old picture in Salem's Hand who is enjoying tea served by Neo._

"I asked you a question."

Many people often wondered if the Universe itself was truly alive. Did it feel anything that happened to it? Did it see all that there was and affect all that could be? Could it affect the forces of fate or choose what happens to all creatures that inhabits it?

Right now, Ruby could come to two different conclusions.

Either the Universe was truly alive and it didn't care what happened to her or her life, or the Universe wasn't alive and there was no force that could stop what came to be. How did she come to that conclusion? Quite easily, actually. All she had to do was finally find the Maiden's location, the whereabouts of it unknown till now, and break her way in there. Thanks to Blake's unknowing involvement, Ruby finally discovered that the maiden was buried deep within the school itself, accessible only through the elevators. Obviously she didn't have the means of hacking into the technological marvel, so she did the next best thing- break through it via destroying the floor of the elevator itself.

All it required afterwards was a brief descent into the abyss of the school, a matter which took approximately thirty seconds to accomplish until she reached the ground.

From there, she entered the forbidden zone, the Vault which housed the maiden herself, the very thing Ruby had been looking for ever since coming to this place. It took her several months, many annoying classes, and tons of homework assignments, but it was all worth it. She finally had the maiden's location. She finally had the one thing that could redeem her in the eyes of her family. She finally had the final key she needed to her freedom from Beacon, and go about her life within Salem's domain once more. There was only one obstacle she now faced.

Professor Ozpin.

From here, things could, and most likely would, get worse. This was Professor Ozpin, the Headmaster of Beacon and Hunter Extraordinaire. As head of this fantastic establishment, he was the leader of one of the greatest Hunting Academies across all of Remnant, and, to Ruby's dismay, one of the greatest hunters that ever lived. They wouldn't just give the title of Headmaster to just anyone, right? He would have to be the world's most incompetent leader if anything ever happened under her watch, and this was proof of it.

It was fitting that the one obstacle between her and the Maiden was the professor himself. Technically, he was behind her, not between her and the maiden, yet that seemed to matter little to the frightened Huntress herself. Ozpin was a master hunter. Knowing him, if he was truly as horrifying as her family came to know him as, he could rip her own heart out with his bare hands. She might be lucky enough to even scratch him his power was so great! And there was no way she was going to escape with the Maiden, much less this entire room, with him around.

"Well?" He asked again raising his brow.

Goodbye. Out of all the words she wished she could say to her family one more time it was goodbye, because after this day, Ruby knew she would be no more. At best, Ozpin would kill her. At worst, he would have her locked up, tortured, never allowed to see the light of day again. They could poison her, inflict physical and mental tortures the likes of which she's never known, things her grandmother herself would call barbaric! And there was no fighting her way out of this situation, even if she had her Grimm by her side.

It was over.

"I...u-uh...mmmh a-ah I was... uh..." Suffice to say, Ruby was terrified. Ozpin on the other hand simply looked unfazed, removing his glasses as he gently wiped them down.

"Oh don't even bother," he directed, "I know exactly why you're here."

"Y-You do?" Yup. Definitely over.

"Of course I do. I could tell by the very moment I met you what your intentions were at this school." Was her acting really that back? Aside from Wolfie, she assumed she displayed a pretty subtle performance as an everyday student of this school. Granted, some things she was still trying to get used to and understand, but beyond that she thought she made a convincing teenager. Donning his glasses once more, he gave her a surprising smile as he directed his cane at her face, making her flinch thinking he was about to attack. "You're interested in the legends of the Maidens!"

"No I-!" Ruby blinked to herself as she repeated what he just said in her mind, a look of confusion overtaking her entire being. "Uhhh... Huh?"

"Oh come now, there's no need to act so surprise. I knew the day I first met you that you were a believer of legends, wanting to see if the Maidens of legend truly existed!" He smiled walking closer to the strange pod containing Amber. "You're a fellow treasure hunter, one who's heart is set solely on discovering legends and treasures of old, correct? I never thought someone would be cunning enough to find their way to this Academy just to do a little treasure hunting." He raised his brow again as she turned his head towards her. "I mean, that _is_ why you're down here, correct?"

Well... this was unexpected. Kind of a complete one-eighty from where she initially thought things were headed. She was just about to try whatever desperate act she could and bolt from the scene, and instead Ozpin just gave every lead she needed out of this predicament. Clearly he was up to the most devious of schemes!

Or maybe he was just really stupid, one of the two.

At the same time, it also presented a problem. If she didn't play along with the story, she would need some other explanation for why she was down here, and not to mention the elevator she destroyed to do it. This way she could play in his favor for now, not wanting to do anything else that could anger him or cause him to question her being here again. The one advantage she did have at this point was the fact she had yet to draw her own weapon. If Ozpin caught her after she pulled it out, there would be no explanation why she had it out in front of this helpless girl.

"Uhhh y-yeah, exactly!" She grinned nervously. "I was just uhh... t-trying to learn more about the maidens."

"I know you were. But how exactly did you come to know about them?" Crap. He was definitely going to expect an answer to whatever trap he just lead her in.

'W-We-Well from my moth- parents! And my grandparents of course." She replied. "I mean you know about all the children's fairytales and bedtime stories parents tell their kids, right?"

"... I see." The doubt in his mind was clear in his words, despite not showing it himself. "I suppose it's as much to be expected. Very few know that the fairytales are true. And I wonder how it is that you discovered the truth about them."

"O-Oh, well I just... d-did a little research behind them." It was getting a little easier to speak in a calming voice, although the presence of Ozpin himself still rattled her. It was like being on the world's thinnest Tightrope, walking across it over the thousands of running saw blades that would cement eternal agony. "I found a book or two from time to time growing up and noticed how the stories behind them changed a little bit with each version. Eventually I decided to start looking into the stories myself and learned that they might've really existed. And based on the vault here and the girl, I guess I ended up being right."

Amusing. That's all that Ozpin could think to himself as she heard every little lie that came out of her mouth. She wanted, above everything, for him to believe each word that she uttered, and she was going to keep to whatever stories she needed until she accomplished her task.

Just the way he knew Salem would train her to be.

"Right you were." He gazed at the girl inside the pod, watching as she slept. "Marvelous piece of technology, isn't it? It's experimental technology created by Atlas, one we're hoping will keep her alive for the time being."

"Really?" Ruby glanced over to the second pod within the vault. "Why do you have two of them?"

"Well... it has a few other creative purposes besides keeping her alive. Tell me, Ruby. Do you know about the powers of a maiden?"

"Just bits and pieces from the stories. Supposedly they were all gifted with strong magic by an old man for their kindness. To be honest I always thought she'd look kind of older." She needed to play the right amount of cluelessness within Ozpin's presence. She couldn't let on just how much she really knew about the stories, such as things that only he and a very few within the entire world knew.

"Actually, you're half right. The maidens were granted strong magical power from the man of legend as a token of appreciation. But this isn't the same maiden from that very day."

"It isn't?"

"No. Matter of fact, she might not even be related to her at all. The maiden's powers have never perished since the day they were gifted. Whenever a current maiden dies, their power transfers to either the last person in the maiden's mind, or, if the person in question is found unworthy, they are given to someone else that they find worthy. It could be the person right next to them or someone on the other side of the world."

Huh. Well there's an interesting detail she didn't know. She knew that the powers would always transfer to whoever's in the mind of the maiden before their death, or whatever person was right next to them, but she never realized the powers themselves would actually determine who gets to inherit them.

"B-But aren't there other ways to inherit their powers? I can't imagine something so powerful would determine who they choose themselves." Ruby commented, looking closer at the sleeping maiden.

"There is, but... the methods aren't charming. Usually one has no control of who they're thinking of last, and if some were to... eliminate her, that would be troubling. Thankfully we don't have to fear that though, right?" He knew. He knew everything. He knew exactly why she was there and he was practically taunting her about the fact. At least to her he was. "Fortunately, that's where this wondrous device comes in." He gestured to the other pod. "With the right tweaks, this thing could theoretically transfer the maiden's power to someone directly."

"I-It can?!" Ruby wasn't surprised by the fact it was capable of such a feat, she was more surprised that Ozpin himself had any matter of technology behind it. If it could work as well as he hoped it would, then it was only a matter of time until he went underway with the transfer.

"Theoretically, I said. Even if it was to work, there's no guarantee the person it's transferred to would be safe. The merging could cause who knows what kind of problems, not to mention the person who has to live with them. There's no telling what effects it would have on the new host."

Ah.

There was the Ozpin she knew, the evil mastermind like she would expect to be behind such a thing. He didn't care what sort of person he had to put through the dilemma, nor did he care what happened to Amber afterwards. As long as he made progress, he would pursue it. He would use whatever means in his arsenal in order to defeat her grandmother and wipe out all the Grimm in existence. No, not just her. He would wipe out everyone Ruby loved and cared for in her life, and that was something she would never let happen.

That's why he needed to be stopped.

"Who is she anyway?"

"Her name is Amber, a dreadful girl who was attacked by nothing more than barbarians and thugs before being brought here. I don't know if she'll ever recover."

"Yeah right..."

"What was that?" With the silence in the room, Ozpin could hear Ruby's utterance from a mile away, the girl herself shrieking and startled.

"I-I mean h-how can you be so sure if you're right?" Ruby asked, walking a little closer to the chamber.

"Right about what?"

"I mean about her!" She subconsciously squeezed her fist a little as she went on. "How do you know she's anything but innocent? Maybe she's a bandit herself? Maybe she's secretly a serial killer or something!"

"...I see your point." Oh Salem, Salem. It was starting to become apparent at just how manipulative her methods had gone. Raising such an innocent girl to see anything outside of darkness as absolute evil, it was almost sickening just thinking about it. "Tell me Ruby, what exactly do you see?"

"Huh?" What did that mean?

"Tell me, when you see this girl in front of you."

Now that made it easy.

"I see a monster!" She stated, glaring at the comatose girl "I see someone who's been manipulating her powers for her own benefits! Greed, power, anything to make her life easier!"

"Really?" He rubbed his chin as a look of surprise grew on him. "Well, clearly I need better glasses because I'm quite blind compared to you."

"Then what do you see?" Yeah, that outta get his attention. If he was so sure of himself he could tell her what he saw!

"What do I see?" She looked at the small reflection of Ruby's face upon the glass, the girl herself taking a moment to realize this. "I see sadness, despair. I see a young little girl who finds herself terrified right now, a defenseless child who who has no means to protect herself." He began to walk back to young girl as her nerves started building up again. "I see a young little girl who's been brought here against her will, who even to this day still doesn't understand why she's here."

"Y... You're talking about Amber, right?" The pause in his response gave her the shudders, silently gulping as she tried to look into his eyes hidden beyond the glass. If there was a being on this planet that could look into people's souls, she knew it would be Ozpin. She could practically feel his mind wrapping around her soul, squeezing it to the point of suffocation.

Finally, after what felt like eternity, he replied. "Of course I'm talking about Amber. Who _else_ would I be referring to?" She prayed he wasn't expecting a response from that line. Right now her entire body was just frozen with fear, so still to the point where she could feel her heart beating with each thump. The fear wasn't emanating from Ozpin's words though.

It was herself.

Why was she here again? To find the maiden obviously! She came all this way to kill the maiden and prevent whatever evil deeds she was taught about. What did evil people do? They hunted the innocents and preyed on the weak. They did everything in their power to make everyone's lives a living nightmare, uncaring in mind or heart. It didn't matter to them who they wronged or what reasonings they had behind it, all they had was a sickening enjoyment and pleasure from the pains they inflicted.

That's why Ruby was here! She was a hero! She failed in her first attempt with her mother to kill the Fall Maiden, and that's why she was here, to correct the mistake! She risked life, limb, and sanity the minute she entered this evil academy known as beacon, working her way through the school as an everyday student with no seemingly wrong intentions, fighting alongside fellow teens against the Grimm, and working her butt off trying to manage al her research and secrecy of the Maiden's location and her homework at the same time. And that's what she was doing here! Here to kill the defenseless maiden!

...Wait, what? Why? Why did she call her defenseless? She made it sound like she felt some form of sympathy for her? Fat chance! She was evil! She knew everything she did because of her loving family who raised her! They were a bit unorthodox, but they were her family! And their strange behavior is what made Ruby so drawn to them and their unique antics. They all had something different about themselves, yet they were still her family. She loved all of them and wanted to show them what she was capable of.

And killing the maiden was the best way! They were evil anyway, so who cares if they were killed? Even on the low minuscule chance they weren't, so what? The world was corrupt. That's why her family wanted to put an end to that and fix everything, and she wouldn't let that detail falter!

So why was she questioning any of this? She already knew it, so she knew what was answer was...

Right?

"B-But how do you know she's not really evil?" Ruby tried to argue. "I mean you don't really know anything about her, right? You just met her who knows how long ago!"

"That's a very valid statement. But with that said, how do I know you weren't here for any other purpose?" This was getting bad again. If she kept trying to push, he would immediately call her out on it, and it would be nothing short of a quick dive into her chest to rip her heart out, if she was lucky enough.

"B-Because I uh...I... IIIII know better than that! I mean, I wouldn't just come all the way here to kill a single person, r-right? I mean who would?"

"...Hm, indeed. Who would?" He smiled a bit. "I would expect nothing less than a cowardly thief or a heartless animal to pull something like that off." He said walking past her.

"Where are you going?" Actually now that she said that, she had a much more pressing question in her mind.

How did he get down here?

"I was just about to head back to my office. I was worried when I heard the alarms going off in my office, but, seeing how your intentions were pure, I suppose it's something I can overlook. Provided you keep this place's location just between us, for now."

"Y-Yeah, I can do that." The nervous smile on her face hid all sense of fear.

She was trapped now. He had security measures guarding this place as well as alarms she should've expected within the school, ones she probably would've stopped to think about if her concern over Blake's status didn't cloud her mind! Out on top of that, she was now stuck between a rock and a hard place. She couldn't kill the Maiden, at least now now. Ozpin knew she was down here, and she was pretty sure he had an idea of her true intentions for this place. But that wasn't the nerve-wracking part.

The nerve-wracking part was, now he knew. He knew she was down here. He knew she found a way to the Maiden's location and learned of her whereabouts. At this point, if she tried anything to harm the maiden, if she tried or did kill the maiden, then that was it. Ozpin would know right away that she was the one responsible if the Maiden ended up dead, and she knew it all the same. She officially had been barred from the Maiden from this point forward, unless she ever felt suicidal enough to try anything desperate.

Still, it wasn't 100% bad in the end. After all, her primary objective was just to find the Maiden. Clearly her family would understand and they would still be proud of her after the many weeks she's been investigating. That would be worth a good pat on the back, right? And looking more at it, she realized she was done here. She accomplished her end of the mission, so now she just had to report back to Salem, via phone. Better yet, she would hopefully get to see Blake again when she got back to the main floor, hoping they weren't going to be too curious of her whereabouts or what she was doing.

There was still one matter at hand though.

"Oh, and Ruby?"

"Y-Yeah?" She nervously replied back. Please god tell her she didn't just jinx it for herself.

"Next time you wish to investigate some part of the school yourself," he paused as he pushed open a secret staircase with his cane, "please ask about it beforehand and refrain from destroying school elevators."

"Oh... right." She chuckled bitterly as she walked on over.

Well there was a week's worth of detention she had waiting for her...

...

...

The girl's bathroom. That was the first place Ruby called her mother from when she first came to this accursed place. She can't remember if this was the exact same one, but the details weren't important. The only parts that mattered was how it came with a lock and a means to keep people from eavesdropping or simply dropping in to her conversation.

Just like those past times, she pulled out her scroll, waiting for the first couple of rings for any response until her mother finally answered. "Mom?"

"Ruby? Sweetie, how are you? It's been awhile." As always, she greeted her dear child with the heartwarming tone she always did, something Ruby was starting to miss seeing in person.

"It's going fine mom, really fine. I actually got great news for you!" Ruby's own heart was pounding with excitement.

"What's that?"

"Heh heh... I found the Maiden's location!" And just like everything else, her mother gasped with shock and surprise, one she could easily see filled with joy.

"Ruby, that's wonderful! It's... " Ruby felt a bit of worry emanating from her mother's silence. "Ruby, did you... by chance..." The sigh Ruby let out said it all.

"No, mom, I didn't kill her. N-Not that I didn't try to, it's just... well..."

"...I understand." It didn't matter to the fiery mother. All her life of raising Ruby has finally shown her value to Salem, her value to all of them. Even if she didn't know just how closely Salem felt attached to the young child, her proof of service already gave her more than enough reason to keep her around. "Ruby, you have no idea how proud I am, how proud all of us will be."

'You're not mad?" It was the only worry Ruby had throughout her entire stay here. No matter how hard she tried, no matter what she did, she always had the worries of "what if?" on her mind. She didn't know what their reaction would be if she couldn't bring herself to kill off the maiden. Half the purpose of this whole trip was to come and kill the maiden, so if she couldn't pull that off then what use was she?

"Of course not, sweetie, why would I be? The only point of you being there was to find the maiden's location and you did just that. You weren't even supposed to do it in the first place yet you succeeded. Everyone will be so happy to hear."

"Hmhm... that's great. I'm still a bit bummed I couldn't kill the maiden, but I know for a fact where she is."

"That's great to hear. Once we get everything set up over here, we'll move on to the next part of the plan. Do you think you can hold out there for another few weeks?"

"Heh, yeah, of course!" Well there was some more fortunate news for her. She got to spend a few more days with Blake. Even if it meant being in this abominable place of corrupt Hunters, it would give her some more time to patch things up with Blake before they left one another, possibly for good this time. "Say umm... What exactly is the plan now?"

"For now, we're playing a lot of things by ear, we still have some heists to pull off if we want to make Beacon's infiltration more successful. After that, we should be able to get the maiden's power in no time."

"Yeah, that's... great..."

"Is something wrong?"

"Y-Yeah, it's... I'm fine."

"Ruby, I can tell when you're lying to me. Tell me what's wrong."

What was going on? Why was Ruby finding herself suddenly hesitating? This sounded like perfect news! She accomplished her mission, everyone was proud of her, and she was going to spend some more time with her self-proclaimed big sister, so everything should've been great! Sure, she didn't kill the maiden, but that was nothing worse than getting a mere pebble in her shoe. At worst, it should've been as bad as stubbing her toe.

"I'm fine mom, I just... Do... Do we really need to kill the maiden?"

"...Excuse me?"

"Look, I-I'm not saying to stop the plan or anything, far from it. It's just... I-I don't know, it just seems kind of like... overkill now, doesn't it? I mean... W-We can just steal her powers now, she's going to die anyway! I-I mean it's just a simple matter of using that glove again, right? We can just make a new one or something, or just... um..."

It was only now Ruby noticed the uneasy silence that came from her scroll. There was nothing worse than knowing you were the only one talking in an important conversation while everyone else just stared silently at you. "M-Mom?... Mom? P-Please, I'm sorry, I-I don't mean... Look, ju-just forget everything I said, okay? It was a stupid idea, I don't know why I said it, I just-"

"Ruby, it's okay." Much to the teen's relief, her mother finally replied. "You're probably just a bit mixed up right now. After all, you must be pretty winded from finishing the mission, right?"

"Uhh... Y-Yeah, heh, right!" Ruby physically rubbed the bridge between her eyes, trying to soothe whatever stresses were building up. "I guess I'm just overly relieved to be done here, or something."

"Well just keep on top of things for now. It's great that you finished the mission honey. Try and keep a normal profile for the time being, ok?"

"Yeah... ok..."

"You know, if you want, your _older siblings_ have business in the city in a few days. I think I can persuade them to let you tag along if you want."

"Really? Sure, sounds great! Let met know if anyone needs anything to further the plan or something."

"I will sweetheart. Just take care of yourself for now, alright?"

"M'kay! I'll see you later mom, love ya!"

"Hmhm, love you too sweetie."

 _ ***click***_

"...Huff..." That sigh didn't escape from Ruby's person.

That came from the proud mother herself as she found herself leaning in one of Salem's many chars.

This had been the longest she had ever gone without hearing from Ruby, while not entirely being the longest she's gone without seeing her. The moment Ruby left for this mission, the second she decided she wanted to take care of the mission herself, she was left with worry. She was her darling angel, she was one of the people she cared for the most. So it wasn't surprising with the many worries that left her.

Was she eating right? Was she healthy? Was she ok? Was she safe? Was she alone? Was she scared? What was she doing each day? What was she wearing? Was she making friends? Was she happy? Was she making progress? Was she safe from Ozpin? Was the mission going alright? Was she finding the maiden? Did she find the maiden? Was she going to be able to find her at all? Was she going to kill the maiden? How far was she progressing? Was her studies coming along okay? Was she able to keep a low profile? Was her Grimm keeping her safe? Would she survive any of her field tests? Was anyone daring to harm her darling precious sweetheart!?

The list was endless!

But now, she had an update. She had news about how far her sweetheart had come along. She had the utmost pride for her and the things she's accomplished even before this. Getting a call from her each week, hearing all the news that came from her and the excitement that followed, it was all invigorating! It warmed her so much to know her daughter was having a good time in such a dangerous place.

And yet... with the sudden revelation of her mission, her mind was only clouded with... worry.

"I assume she called you?" Salem asked as Neo poured her another helping of warm tea. The older sibling herself was all but excited to hear that her little sis was doing so well!

"Yes..." What should've filled Cinder's tone with relief was replaced by distress. "She told me she found the maiden..."

"But she didn't mention anything about Ozpin dropping in on her, did she?" Her silence said it all, and while she had too much of a professional presence to show it, it left Salem herself with worry too. "I thought so."

"She still accomplished her mission at least." Cinder pointed out.

"And she displayed hesitation during her talk with you." Neo began to be overcome with worry herself as the dread began to spread. "This is starting to become troubling." The older sibling of two wasted no time setting her tray down as she quickly wrote in her personal journal for the two.

-CAN'T WE JUST PULL HER OUT NOW?-

"I'm afraid not." Cinder replied leaning back. "We might need her help in the future, and there would be nothing for her to do here if she returned."

"Not to mention Ozpin's awareness of her knowledge of the Maiden." The grandmother added, leaning herself up against the tips of her fingers. "If she left now, that would cause too much suspicion and caution around Beacon itself. They would just as likely increase security, if not move the maiden entirely, if Ruby went missing after finding the maiden herself. And that's not even the most troubling detail."

-WHAT COULD BE WORSE THAN THAT?-

The two adults of the room, comparatively to Neo at least, glanced at each other, thinking the same thing. They knew it couldn't be helped since Ruby was outside of their presence for so long, and on a whole, they didn't blame her for it either, but it didn't make the feeling any less troubling. This was something they were going to need to keep an eye on no matter how much it hurt them in turn.

"Ozpin's starting to get to her..."

...

...

...

 _ **A/N: Ok, now i need to point this out because I know everyone's going to be going ballistic (and yes I do mean with missles) unless I clarify this point right now.**_

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 ** _I will state I plan on a very... personally at least, "interesting" direction for the future. I'm not going to say what that is, but just keep going along, and you (hopefully) won't be disappointed. I will say it'll be quite a WHILE until that direction is revealed (as in the latter volumes of either 4 or 5 so far...) but I promise you it will be a new direction compared to everything else done up to this point. If you've trusted my writing/storytelling up to this point, then please trust me enough when I say you should enjoy what I have to offer._**

 ** _With that said, we've reached the FINAL FINAL episode of Vol 1 ^^ annnnnd definitely not the last interlude XP. With the next chapter planned being the first episode of Volume 2, with everyone's FAVORITE scene of the series (you know what I'm referring to XP) I got quite a bit of writing to do ^^. It'll be awhile with school and rereading my work to get back into the flow of things, provided my writing does need improving compared to what it used to be, but hopefully it won't take too long and i'll have something by the end of the week._**

 ** _With that said, hope you all enjoyed today's last Vol 1 episode and vol 1 interlude ^^! Leave a like, fav, follow, and review if you enjoyed, and hope to see you soon ^^!_**


	48. Final Author's Note

**_I apologize once again for the numerous author's notes I've been posting, but I need to get this off my chest. Not out of lack of effort or energy or anything but i've been having a mental block as of late, and it's my belief that the only way out of this predicament is to come to terms with an issue that's been nagging me for the last two weeks._**

 ** _As many of you know, I posted my volume 1 finale a few days back, and the feedback was... a little bit more even than the last major flop i had twenty chapters ago. Even the actual feedback people gave was rather split. Some people said they liked it, others absolutely loathed it. And normally, I wouldn't be bothered by the negative feedback. Heck, I barely had an issue with Jaune's negative feedback for the 2nd part and all._**

 ** _But as of late, I've noticed. A lot of people are taking the negative feedback and amplifying it to no end, for reasons i've yet to even understand myself, it's bothered me. Not so much the negative feedback, but the fact it all relates to one specific thing: A lack of trusts. A lack of trust towards me, my work, my writing, my style and everything I've done. I got so much criticism to the point I even had to block someone because their messages ranged from insults, petty remarks, etc., and then the guy goes and tries to pretend he didn't say anything in their messages while telling me how to do my work (in a demanding tone not a "I think you should try this" sorta way)._**

 ** _And after all the feedback, a lot of soul searching, and 3 days of crying to my friends Ben 'n Jerry, i've come to a conclusion. And my conclusion is..._**

 ** _I don't care._**

 ** _Not about the people reviewing, but the people who think they can change my fanfic or order me to do it in a way that isn't mine. I've been on this project for nearly a year now, and yeah it had some ups and downs. It had great chapters, and some chapters with a piece people didn't like and apparently focused on rather than the overall fanfic itself (for reasons i have yet to understand- it's like repainting a golden version of the mona lisa and people complain because there's a simple white dot at the far end of the painting XP not the best example but covers my overall point)._**

 ** _My point is, I've started this fanfic long ago. I have parts here and there even I find questioning, but I don't mind them necessarily. And i'm not saying I despise the criticisms, far from it, as long as it's done in a more presentable manner- like Sani has with several errors of plausibility they've brought to my attention several times. And thanks to it i've made fixes to said errors and have become a smarter person for it!... ok not necessarily true but still._**

 ** _As long as criticism is done nicely, I accept it with open arms. With people along the lines of this, however? Where people spam you repeatedly to the point they even pretend to be a completely random person and criticize your work despite being dumb enough to write it in the exact same format as the person who's arguing with you while COINCIDENTALLY having a conversation with the same person who won't stop saying the exact same thing at the EXACT same time? it's irritating and mind numbing._**

 ** _Overall, my point is this: I don't care. I started this progress, and I plan on going in along the lines of how I've always intended it to be. I've asked my great fans to trust my work and go along with it, and hope those same great people continue enjoying the work and forgive any mistakes I made, as well as these annoying author's notes (speaking of which to answer a question to why I don't delete these later- I would, but I fear Fanfiction's site wouldn't register/alert followers that the story has updated if I place my recent chapter in the exact same spot. If it does then I'll delete this one by the time my next chapter is ready, which should be a couple days)._**

 ** _If you do trust me, I love ya :D! If you don't, oh well. Continue the fanfic, don't continue it, whatever. Just don't be annoying to the point of constant spamming, having the same unoriginal message as everyone else, and try to be obnoxious to the point of trying to pretend to be a different reviewer just to get away with spamming me about some point or other._**

 ** _Bottom line, I am not going the "duh ruby betrays her family, she good now, duh end" route, which I actually did state in my last chapter before someone said I should get rid of it to avoid spoilers. However, it's not going in the way people are going to think either. I'm going with a (presumably) more original approach, which sadly can't/won't be proven until I catch up with the current point in time. And as I've said again in the last one, just gotta have faith and trust me in it till we reach that standpoint, and come about the final revelation._**

 ** _Till then, hope you all enjoy the future of this fanfic (let me know if you get alerts after I delete this chapter- and i mean tell me if that is what happens or not, idk), and hope to hear from you soon. Sorry for the minor rant, just had to get that out there because it's been nagging on my mind for the last week and leaving me unable to write for awhile. I'm already feeling a small flow growing in the writing area, so hopefully my writing is starting to return to me even as we speak ^^!_**

 ** _Hope to see you all soon!_**


	49. Volume 2 Ep1 Part 1: Best Day Ever!

**_A/N: 4.5k Pre-A/N's. Kinda a short update guys, but wanted to get something out after the last near two weeks since the last actual updates. Also wanted to take this time to thank a lot of you guys for all the feedback and support you've given me after my little ranting update last chatter XP. It feels good to know a lot of people are actually behind this compared to the naysayers._**

 ** _Speaking of who, i'd like to apologize to several of said Naysayers- apparently several of them were under the impression I was downsizing them or something specifically compared to other people. I'd like to emphasize I'm not blaming all you guys for the critiques XP A lot of the people who were disappointed actually said as much in a kind and fair manner, they didn't chew my ears off or something like others. Seriously, it's just fen guys :P I know there was some disappointment but I promise it'll be well worth it when this fanfic picks up again._**

 ** _I'd also like to thank a certain idiot, the same one I blocked, for something stupid he did XP. Apparently he had the genuine Idea of trying to make some appalling review overreacting to the last rant I had earlier, with the usual garbage here and there and yada yada yada... Honestly I didn't read it cause i don't really care much for whatever crud he has to say at this point. All I know is he was trying to be a stuck up snob about it again like his harassing emails he kept sending me till I blocked him._**

 ** _However, he made the humorous yet stupid mistake of writing his name under the guest line too. The fact he wrote his name under the anonymous guest line wasn't the part I found stupid though: it's the fact he wrote his name at all where EVERYONE could read and see his name and know who it was that harassed me for the last several weeks. And as humorous as I would find it for people to harass him back (ALL ACCORDING TO MY EVIL PLANS!), I took the more professional route (which I don't really have the right to say since I just called him an idiot XP) and deleted it. It was for his own good. The guy was obnoxious to me but I don't want to see people giving him crap because of it._**

 ** _So for future Reference you-know-who, 1, you'll never get to me again so eat me. And 2, you should think more about being a decent person because anyone else would've most likely given you crap for it. You don't bother me anymore, nor do you affect me, which is the final rant I needed to get off my chest ^^._**

 ** _So with all said and done, let's enjoy the first part of the next episode!_**

...

...

...

Clear blue skies often brought numerous things with them. A sunny day, birds chirping overhead, several flying contraptions soaring across the sky. Oh, and the illusion of peace.

There were never any peaceful times around Remnant, that's what Ruby knew. They were always filled with the empty promises and lies of the fellow hunters, the people she's been pretending to work under for the last week, who claimed that everything was fine, the world was peaceful, and that they would be the ones to protect them. They always went on with how strong they were, showing off their prowess just to impress the public, and giving them the false image that everything was fine with the world.

What garbage!

The Hunters were absolute nightmares! They only did what they did for the glory and respect they earned when they completed their missions! They only cared about filling their pockets with Lien, showing the world that they were the greatest single person in the world, and that every word they said could be trusted! They didn't know what was really going on! They didn't have a clue about how many people suffered on a constant basis!

How about the people tat were murdered each and every day? How about the people who robbed them, unlike Ruby's family, for their own benefit or just to instill misery in the rest of humanity?! To claim that everything was peaceful made people simpleminded. It made them go along with whatever crap they heard on the news so academies and military didn't have to worry about them interfering with anything they did to make a profit. They didn't care period about anything unless it was to better themselves, only making things more sickening to Ruby when they finally DID do something good, not out of decency or kindness, but just to widen that smug grin on their faces for the rest of the world to see.

That's why Ruby was here. She came all the way to Beacon to accomplish one of two different tasks: Find the Fall Maiden, and then, if possible, kill her. It took her several weeks, almost a full two months at that, for her to accomplish the first part. It wasn't so much having trouble blending in with everyone so much as trying to figure out where the maiden was actually hiding. With an immense academy like Beacon, it was all too fortunate that she managed to find her anywhere at all! She would have a better chance finding a needle in the haystack, at least that would only take several hours. From entryways that were for staff only to all the corners around this floating landmass, there were too many possibilities to where the Maiden could've been.

If it hadn't been for Blake's unknowing assistance, she might've never found her at all!. Thanks to her general big sister, she reminded Ruby of all the fun times they used to have and the numerous times they used their imagination to get involved, like with super secret spy sisters or something, and in those times, Ruby realized that the only thing she had yet to check were the elevators themselves! What better security could there be than having a secret location accessible via only the elevator?

Of course, this brought it's own dilemma to how Ruby would get access to the secret floor, seeing how she didn't have a means to actually finding it, and asking any of the staff for some secret access card or something to the room was out of the question. Thankfully, being the resourceful little scamp she was, she found an alternative solution to her problems, one that was both efficient and completely subtle! ...At least to her it was in idea. And what possible solution did she come up with?

Blowing up the elevator's floor of course!

Thanks to her clever and igneous idea, personally speaking, she found herself dropping immediately down to the farthest reaches of the academy, way below anything the elevator gave the students immediate access to. It only took half a minute for her to come upon the secret final floor of the academy, the Vault which housed the school's many secrets only known to her and those aware of the true tales of the Maidens themselves.

It was there that she had found what she was looking for, found what took her so long to accomplish. Within the mysterious Atlesian device itself, was the maiden of Fall, Amber, the one purpose that kept her separated from her family for so long!

Unfortunately, that's also where things went from bad to worse in her line of work. Immediately upon arriving at the scene, she was greeted by the all-too-familiar sound of the Headmaster of Beacon, Ozpin himself, standing behind her. On some ounce of luck, or maybe the Headmaster was just really incompetent, she came to believe he thought she was nothing more than some treasure hunter, coming all the way to Beacon to study more about the Maidens themselves and to see if they're real, never realizing just how deeply he new of her true intent. At the same time, she also came across a different... problem... he set upon her.

Doubt.

She didn't doubt everything she had done up to this point, nor did she even think that what she was doing was wrong. The maidens were forces of destruction, people who needed to be snuffed out in the grand goal of making the world a better place, one her family had been working towards for who knows how long, especially her dear grandmother. But were these really the methods they needed to resort to? Did they really need to flat out kill the people who were responsible for making the world a terrible place?

At first, Ruby's first reaction to this would've been "of course!" all the time. Why wouldn't she want to destroy anything that presented itself as true evil? But Ozpin said something that she had yet to get out of her mind even the week after; who was truly evil? The Maiden, or the person who would try to kill someone so weak and defenseless in the dire state she currently found herself in? Ruby always fought fight against people like those who would take advantage of others, advantage of the weak and helpless. So what did this make Ruby herself?

The question and line of doubt had been plaguing her for the last several days, the detention due to the destruction of one of the School's elevators not helping, since then. It was never a worry of whether or not she felt like she would or could betray her family, just something that's been nagging at her in the back of her mind since.

Thankfully today's outing with two of her favorite people, albeit not most favorite of course, in the world would help clear that up.

 _*plip*_

"Ah-!" Ruby yelped in surprise, practically startled by the pebble flicked at her forehead. She had no idea how long she was deep in thought for, just that she wasn't aware of anything else until just this moment. Turning to the direction of her pebble-assaulter, she saw the face of her self-proclaimed big brother of the group grinning slightly back to her.

"Hello? Earth to Ruby, you there?" He asked as the two continued leaning against the wall.

"Huh? Oh, sorry Merc, I was just thinking." She apologized staring back into the sky.

"Don't hurt yourself."

"Haha, very funny." She rolled her eyes, lightly tapping his shoulder with her fist.

Out of the two new "siblings" she's acquired over the last several years, Mercury was definitely her favorite. Unlike Emerald, he didn't seem to mind her company as much, and actually came to enjoy it if it meant getting involved in any shenanigans with her. At the same time, he also needed to be wary of what sort of pranks he pulled with her, or, more importantly, on her, less she incurs her mother's fiery wrath.

Speaking of siblings, the second of the two older ones made herself known as she finally walked out from the side of the building, Mercury giving a slight grin after hearing the conversation she had with the old man a few seconds ago. "I knew you were lost." Just like all good times, Emerald rolled her eyes at the statement. Nearly every conversation had to start out with either bad news, or him making some snide remark that really irritated her. It only got worse when the person she was incapable of yelling at felt like getting involved.

"Somebody owes me five Lien~" Ruby sung grinningly. Nothing felt great like winning a bet from an older sibling.

"Guys, I will pay you both to be quiet until we're finished with our task." Emerald said almost pleadingly, offering the wallet she just stole. Both Mercury and Ruby looked at each other for a few seconds, getting the same vibes from the other person as they looked back.

"Nah." They agreed in unison, getting the look of annoyance and irritation from the green-haired girl.

Annoyance and irritation pretty much summed up Emerald of the two siblings. It's not that Ruby found her annoying or anything, quite the opposite. Emerald had a tendency of finding Ruby herself to be rather annoying, and a handful since she apparently had just about as much authority over her aas her mother did, and was expected to respect her and everything she said or did as if she was addressing Cinder herself.

And that's what made things really confusing to Ruby. Personally, she liked the older step-sibling even if Emerald didn't show any interest in her herself. She was sympathetic with Emerald's lonely past, she was interested in her cool mind manipulation powers, and she just had that sporting attitude most teens had in this day and age. Plus she taught her a great deal of how to successfully pickpocket someone, a skill Ruby later found most useful in her life when she needed to steal something for her family or the White Fang they were slowly rebuilding a relationship with.

Plus it was nice to be able to have another sister to hang out with when Neo wasn't available, not that she could ever replace her mind you.

"Besides, it's not even your money." Mercury added.

"Speaking of which, why are you even stealing to begin with? You know you can just ask if you need to borrow some." Ruby reminded. Emerald rolled her eyes at this again before the trio began continuing the walk to their destination.

"You know your mom keeps nagging on me every time I ask for it." She replied. "I don't want a repeat of the last twenty minute pep talk she gave me."

"Well maybe next time you ask for money, you don't waste it on something pointless like getting your hair done." Mercury retorted.

These just about summed up the numerous kinds of conversations Ruby and her other "siblings" tended to have as they made their way down the city, which was just about the way Ruby liked it. It gave her a chance to have a time of decency, quietness, and overall peace. Be it going on missions with them, sparring, or just trying to find a way to pass the time after Ruby did her homework from Watts, these two managed to give her enough peacefulness to relieve whatever tension was built around her life.

"How much farther?" Mercury continued to complain.

"Just a few blocks." She answered. Out of the three, nobody wanted the day to end faster than her.

"This place is so dull..."

"Hey, it's not that bad." buy said with a puff of her cheeks. "I've spent a good couple weeks around the city. It has a decent number of stores."

"I know, right?" Emerald nodded in agreement. "It's a big city but nice and quiet. Tall buildings, diverse cultures-"

"And nice dopey people to pickpocket." He joked again, looking back to the two.

"That's every city."

"Oh, Emerald! Master Thief! Please don't take my money! I barely have enough to get by!" He gasped sarcastically. While it definitely wasn't brightening Emerald's mood, it was enough to leave Ruby with a few good chuckles as she decided to tag in.

"Grrr! I don't care about your family," she said in a low teasing tone, "I need enough money to buy some soap. I haven't bathed in weeks!"

"Mhh..." Emerald groaned as she pushed herself past the two, leaving them a small glare beforehand. Both teammates looked at each other with a small shrug, tagging along behind her wondering if they might've pushed it a little too far.

...

 ***ding-a-ling***

The three were greeted by the sight of a seemingly-abandoned bookstore, the only light penetrating the room being the one from the clear windows. This was Tukson's bookstore, one of the few bookstores Ruby ever knew about, ad, more importantly, the location to their current mission. There were multiple fond memories Ruby had of this place while growing up, specifically all the times one of her favorite comics ever came out, or the one and only occasion she could recall them having a book signing for said comics.

The owner of the bookstore, Tukson himself, was even a really nice person! There were multiple times Ruby found herself dawdling around the bookstore, reading one comic after the other if she and her friends or family ever found themselves hanging around this part of the city for an extended period of time. Often on he was nice enough to let her read to her hearts content, even going as far as to let her remove some of them from packaging just so she could read them there.

Maybe a good part of that had to do with his affiliation with his other line of "business", one that was more than aware of Ruby's status and the group she belonged to, or at least how strong that group was. None of the White Fang, those higher up with authority and status who knew of Ruby's background, would dare get themselves involved with the girl out of fear for their own lives. Because of this, it was hard to say how many people from the White Fang actually liked Ruby, and how many of them were just saying they liked Ruby.

Regardless, she had many good memories and times here from her days of exploring the city and all it's people.

Too bad this was most likely going to be her last visit.

"I'll sure miss this place." Ruby mumbled as Emerald walked up to the counter, tapping the chiming bell. Almost immediately the owner appeared through the doorway at the back end, walking backwards into the store with several large stacks of books in each hand.

"Welcome to Tukson book trade!" He greeted as he set the books away. "Home to every book under the sun. How may- uhh..." He was cut off by the sight of his apparent customers, recognizing them all too well, especially the one in the White Hood. "H-How may I help you?"

"Just browsing." Mercury replied, sifting through the numerous books trying to find something, slamming shut any he finished with.

"The comics are over here, Merc." Ruby said, already reading one of the many mangas at the front of the store.

"Actually, I was wondering. Do you have any copies of The Thief and the Butcher?" Emerald asked with a curious smile.

"Yes we do." Tukson nodded.

"That's great."

"Are you interested in a copy?"

"Nope. Just wondering..." Nothing about her pleasing smile brought any joy to Tukson's own, and Mercury continuing to slam books shut eerily wasn't helping. "Oh! Oh! What about Violet's Garden? In paperback?"

"He's got it." Mercury spoke up, looking through the rows of books.

"He's even got it on hardback." Ruby looked over the book, giving it a quick skim of it's contents.

"Ooh, options are nice." Emerald commented rubbing her chin.

"No pictures though... what a bore."

"Oh, wait! I know! How about... The Third Crusade?" All ambience and all sound within the room suddenly became silent as she said this. While not directly, Tukson himself could feel all eyes on the shopkeeper himself as silence filled the room. Everything slowly made sense to the anxious bookkeeper as he looked around the room. Mercury was smiling to him, Ruby was smiling to him, and Emerald was smiling to him. They all wanted something from him, and not something you could find in a bookstore.

"Um... I-I'm sorry, but we don't carry that one." He said with a quick gulp.

 ***Bam***

"Oh." A disappointed Mercury sighed slamming a book.

"What is this place called again?"

"Tukson's Book Trade."

"And... you're Tukson?" Emerald asked raising her brow.

"That's right."

"So then I take it you're the one who came up with that catchphrase?"

"Such a catchy one too..." Ruby muttered, slowly dimming the lights to the outside and in.

"What was it again?" Mercury knowingly asked.

With another uneasy sigh Tukson replied, "Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun."

"Except, the Third Crusade." Mercury corrected with a small grin.

"It's just a catchphrase-"

"It's false advertising!" What nerve! What kind of place would falsely advertise their own catchphrase? And a book store no less!

"You shouldn't make a promise you can't keep, Tukson." Emerald stated. Typical. Not a single witness or civilian in sight. And this morning all he thought he had to deal with was a stubbed toe. "I heard you were planning on leaving. Moving all the way to Vacuo."

"Vacuo? Hoo boy, that's quite a ways." Mercury gave a small nod to Ruby's detail. "Bet it would take quite a bit of money to move that far away. I bet you wouldn't even have enough money to come back for who knows how long!"

"And your brothers in the White Fang wouldn't like that." Emerald added. "And neither would we." At this, Mercury's smirk widened as he dimmed the remaining books while Ruby slowly put the comic book away.

Dark building? Check. Malicious intent? Check. No witnesses in sight? Check. These were the usual steps you would see before a murder took place, and, unfortunately for Tukson himself, he knew who the victim was going to be. The biggest question in his mind was was it all worth it?

At this point, it was hard to say, but what was he supposed to do anymore? He joined the White Fang originally in the hopes of making things better for Faunus' everywhere, not to become a part of some terroristic group that harassed and harmed the innocent! Maybe his real mistake was not quitting sooner? Before all the violence started, before the White Fang came to be feared, maybe that was around the time to leave? It used to be such a peaceful place where any Faunus could live without worry or regret from abandoning the cause! Now every member who was a member had to follow through to the very end, less they risk their lives on the line.

And that's what Tukson did! He joined all of this in the hopes of getting out of this alive! Sure, he had friends, plenty of friends who were still in the White Fang! After al the time with them, he could even come as close as to calling them brothers and sisters. But with all the violence and mayhem currently going on, he just had to get out of this! He couldn't stand it anymore! He just had to get out of it, even if it meant risking his life.

"You know who we are, don't you?"

"...Yes." Tukson said blatantly.

"And you know why we're here?"

"... Yes." His response seemed to encourage Mercury to come closer to the two, Ruby sitting back and watching as the show was about to play out.

"So. Are you going to fight back?"

"...Yes!" Tukson growled as he leapt to the Counter, pulling his sharpened claws straight from his fingertips. He didn't care anymore. And what choice did he have? His options were to either die, die, or, his least favorite, die. At least this way, he could die on his get.

All it took for him was one grand leap from the counter as he swiped at her, and one dodge to end it all. He wouldn't be able to prepare himself for what came next, the look of confusion overtaking his overwhelming fear. The very next thing he saw was a grinning Mercury, who needed to deliver one quick blast from the soles of his metallic heels.

And the last thing he ever heard was a simple bang...

...

...

"Phew." Ruby sighed as she exited the book store with Mercury and Emerald following behind him.

"Are you okay?" Mercury asked as he checked to make sure the coast was clear.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm just... processing." It was a hard subject for Ruby to bring up for multiple reasons. She always had a problem with the idea of killing, but she could understand it's importance.

People were destined to die. That was the Ultimate Law of the universe. You could try to prevent it, even prolong it, but death eventually came for everyone.

The idea of it did slightly scare her as a child, but she eventually came over it thanks to her loving mother and sister. They taught her to appreciate life and what it had to offer, and didn't have a single reason to say otherwise. That was the best way for her to overcome her minor fear. The part she couldn't get over, however, was being the force that would take someone's life. There were a lot of bad people in the world, some worse than others, that deserved to die. They were horrible, evil, people who cared not for who they hurt or what they did, they were simply awful people. And while Ruby wouldn't like to say it out loud, she could easily agree that some people needed to die, just like Tukson.

He was a fool. Nothing more, nothing less. Actually, scratch that. He was a lot less, more than less. He was a total and complete coward! Did he have any idea what he was doing? He would've left the White Fang behind, and everyone that took the time to help him in any time of his life. They were always there for him when he needed it, and they fought by his side during their time in the White Fang. And what did he do? He planned on leaving them, everyone, everything he ever fought for!

All those times he fought by someone's side, all that time and energy spent on him to help support and encourage his line of work, he was about to make it all pointless. After all that time, he was practically spitting on the face of his friends and their families. He only looked out for himself, and on the likely chance he was weak of heart, he most likely would've turned his brethren in to the police too for amnesty, all just to save his own skin!

Those were the kinds of people Ruby hated. People who would backstab others just for their own gain, their own selfish desires. They were worse than scum, and almost as bad as the Hunters and Huntresses themselves. That's why Tukson had to die. It wasn't a matter of being a traitor, it was a matter of how many people helped him and believed in him, only for him to waste all their effort into him just like the rat he was.

Well, not literally since he was a Faunus, but close enough.

"You know you didn't have to come if you couldn't handle watching." Mercury said while continuing to skim through the comic he took from the store.

"I don't mind watching it, it's just..." It all came back to the same problem again. "I just can't force myself to kill someone for some reason. Every time I'm ready to pull a trigger or swing at someone's head, I just freeze up..."

"Well have you tried just picturing them as something you can kill? Like the Grimm?" Emerald suggested. "You hunt them on a weekly basis in your school anyway, so why not just try that?"

"It's kinda hard to when the people are full of color and life though." That among other certain reasons. She spent a good portion of her life constantly surrounded by the various Grimm, so to her they were just as much alive like any other animal in existence. And even if they weren't, it was almost impossible to find anyone around the world with any resemblance to them, save for her grandma. "That's why I wanted to tag along today, just so I can get more used to it. Plus I had nothing better to do before eleven, so it was a good way to pass the time." On a more curious level to her, the last statement made the two older step-sibling exchange glances with one another. "What?"

"Ruby, you do know it's almost noon, right?" Emerald asked.

"What? No it's not, it's eleven." Ruby assured, rechecking the small clock on her scroll to- "Why does it say 11:58...?"

"You knew last night was daylight savings, right?" Mercury reminded, briefly looking up at her from his comic.

"Whaaat? Nooo it's not, that's next week. Because if it was this week, that would mean..." Ruby's face slowly began to pale the same shade as her white-hooded cloak. "That I'm missing lunch...CRAP!"

And just like that, Ruby was took off with a burst of her semblance. This was just about the same old Ruby the two had the semi-pleasure of growing up with for the last several years. Some days were off, some days were a little bit whacky coming from the strangely sheltered girl who could make Grimm come out of her shadows. but either way you looked at it, she was still one thing that the two of them had gotten used to since the first meeting.

She was still a klutz.

"Do you think we should've told her about Cinder's so-called _surprise_?" Emerald asked Mercury as the two began walking down the street.

"Meh, let her find out for herself..."

...

...

...

 _ **A/N: Hooftah, that little amount took way too long for such a short read. I apologize for the shortness and rather rushed ending there. I actually think half my hiatus was just stuck with me trying to figure out some interaction between the three there. Now that they're separated again and Ruby's heading back to Beacon, I think my idea flow and writing should pick up too ^^**_

 _ **Once again A HUUUUGE shoutout to all the fans who've supported me up to this point and thank yous all around! You guys are awesome, and I promise/hope the series' greatest food fight next episode will prove that X)!**_

 _ **As always leave a like, fave, follow, and review if you enjoyed, and hope to see you awesome people soon ^^!**_


	50. Valentine's Special Pt 1

**_A/N's: Eh, what the heck? It's Valentine's day ^^ I decided to post this after all, granted only half since I only got part of it done so far. Least its a good way to show i've down at least 7k in total of work since my last chapter :P._**

 ** _Anyway, here's a little Valentine's special from me, to you the fans, involving everyone's little shipping of Ruby, Weiss, and their cutie little daughter ^^_**

 ** _Enjoy!_**

 ** _..._**

 ** _..._**

 ** _..._**

*Ka-rumble*

"Weiss, can't we take take another way to Grandma's?"

"I already told you Ruby, we're not riding a nevermore across the ocean with a baby on board!"

"Ababu kehehe!"

"Awww why not? I'll hold tightly onto her!"

"...I wasn't referring to Mei, Ruby."

Such is the life of a typical Schnee Family. With Weiss, Ruby, and their daughter Mei Schnee, the questionably happy family were on their way to pay a visit at Granny Salem's for the first time since Ruby had given birth.

To say such a thing might sound bizarre or even outrageous to the typical common person, when actually, it was the farthest thing from crazy! The entire world was at peace! The Grimm were no more than simple animals that the Hunters still Hunted, but there were no forces of good or evil at play. This was just the simple everyday world in which everyone happily lived in, even if Ruby's grandmother conveniently happened to be the unanimous leader of the Grimm too.

Everyday was usually quirky since Ruby came in to Weiss' life. After the two girls confessed their love for one another, they happily eloped and got married. Of course, most people were at a loss as to how the two consummate their love to the point of actually having a child. Some accused of witch craft, others believed it to be some form of black magic, and others believed Mei was nothing more than just a robot designed by the incredible brilliance of the Atlas kingdom.

The only one who did know the truth to this marvelous wonder of the world was Weiss schnee herself, with the process being verily simple for her to pull off. All she had to do was - REMOVED DUE TO INAPPROPRIATE IMAGERY AND HOT SEXY SCENES - and after the necessary amount of months, Mei Schnee was finally born. And while most people would question the idea of a girl who was now in her 20's married to a girl who turned 19 not two months ago a bit weird, nobody batted an eye when the name Schnee came along.

And all of this is 100% not the horribly written work of a very awful fanfic author who still lives with his parents at the age of 25. He would have to be the world's biggest loser to write something so blatantly forced to the point that even Tommy Wiseau would call bad.

"Are we there, yeeet?" The younger of two mothers groaned.

"How is it that you're whining more than the baby?" She looked over to her little sweetheart in the passenger seat of the helicarrier, nuzzling her nose playfully to the young red and white haired offspring.

"Cause she can't even say words."

"Ruby, between the two of us, I should be the one complaining. We should be visiting my parents for the weekend instead, they offered to bring us on their cruise you know."

"Yeah, but it's so BORRRRING! Everyone just talks about sophisticated things here and boring business things there. No one ever just talks about weapons or cartoons, or even the boring weather which is somehow less boring compared to them!"

"Well maybe you should educate yourself in the matters of having fun once in awhile."

Ruby grinned to this as she leaned over, poking Weiss in the cheeks. "You'd know about finding ways to have fun, wouldn't you?"

"Shut up." Weiss requested with a pink blush to her cheeks.

"Besides, you'll like my family Weiss, they're a lot of fun!"

"Your grandmother is the leader of the Grimm and your mother hates my guts as much as her."

"Oh come on Weiss, they don't hate you. They were just in a bad mood the last time they met you."

"Your mother torched my entire bedroom and your grandmother ransacked the entire Manor!"

"It's not like she killed anyone with the Grimm she summoned..."

"It took six months to repair everything!" She grumbled. She couldn't quite blame them for the reasons as she lowered the helicarrier to the ground below them, coming upon Salem's domain.

In all fairness, her own family wouldn't be that happy either to have their daughter change their last name to something else. If it wasn't for the fact Ruby was two weeks pregnant at the time of their marriage, her mother would've finished strangling Weiss. The only thing keeping her rom it was causing unneeded stress on her darling sweetie and possibly cause stress for the unborn baby. "All I'm saying is I'd rather spend time with people less likely to kill either of us."

"It's fine, honey." Ruby smiled as she brought Wolfie out as Weiss summoned her own icy guardians. One of the many benefits of being able to summon is the ability to summon your own servants to assist in your needs. In this case it was bag carriers, which several of of the guardians carried in their arms and Wolfie carried from the straps in her mouth. With a smile to each other, Ruby happily unbuckled Mei from her seat as the happy family marched up the long steps to the front entrance. "I'm telling you they've warmed up to you since last time."

"How so?"

"Well, they stopped poisoning your water. That's a plus if you ask me!"

"Getting someone to not kill me is the farthest thing from a plus, Ruby!" Weiss stammered, grumbling to herself as they came to the door. As always, the two girls dissipated their assistances, given the past history they had with provoking the Grimm around here. "Your family hates me, and I can assure you the feeling is mutual."

"Oh, come on Weiss! Just give them a chance." Ruby's perky attitude was one of the things Weiss always loved about her, even if she didn't show it. Whether rain or shine, she always had something to smile about. Not even knocking her hand against the hardwood door could damper her spirits, considering how hefty the handles were. "Trust me, they love you as much as they love me!"

*WHAM!*

"Sweetie, you're home!" Cinder greeted happily in her motherly fashion, paying absolutely no mind to the door she slammed into Weiss.

"Hey mom," Ruby greeted back, throwing one arm around her in a hug as she held Mei in the other, "did ya miss me?"

"Of course we missed you sweetheart, we haven't seen you in months!" The special shine in her eyes widened more as her gaze trailed along Ruby's arm, noticing the equally-special angel she was holding. "Oh my goodness, is this Mei?" She squealed wasting no time as she plucked her from Ruby's grasp. "Oh my gosh she has gotten so cuuuuute!"

Yup, that was definitely the mother Ruby remembered. Gushing at every little thing she did, always loving the sight of her daughter, and now she had a new favorite to add to her little collection of favorite people.

"Geh babu!" Mei babbled incoherently, giggling as her new Grandmother waved her playfully in her arms. As this little scene of cuteness and wonder was taking place, one of the two doors slowly creaked back into place as an annoyed Weiss made her appearance known, hair messy and her face slightly bruised.

Sadly not the worst way she's been greeted since meeting Ruby's family. There were multiple attempts at poisoning, multiple gunmen hired to assassinate her, dozens of Grimm that tried to devour her, the most unholy of curses that tried to beset her, and thousands of explosives placed around her living spaces just to get at her.

And that was just within the first 2 hours of meeting Ruby's family! Don't even her started on the first week after meeting them.

"I'm here too, thanks for asking..." Weiss grumbled gritting her teeth. She wanted to do nothing more than lash out and shout her panties off right in Cinder's face but, aside from not wanting to scare Mei, she promised Ruby to be on her best behavior while they visited the family for the weekend.

"Mom, you remember Weiss, my wife?" Ruby introduced as she took Mei from her mother again. Cinder gave her a pleasant smile as she walked over to the girl, gently laying her hand between her shoulder blade.

"Oh, of course, how could I forget?" The happy easygoing smile she once had on her face quickly shifted a full 180* as a look of anger, terror, and agony filled her twitching eye and her twitchy smile. Weiss did everything in her power to keep from yelping in pain as Cinder suddenly squeezed her, gripping harder and tighter with each passing word. "How could I possibly forget the little assssstounding person who captured my daughters heart," Weiss squealed internally as she tried to pry Cinder's metallic grip off to no avail, "got married to her without inviting me, took my last NAME, KNOCKED UP MY FREAKING DAUGHTER ANDMADEHERGOTHROUGHTHEMIRACLEOFCHILDBIRTH-!"

"Mom, mom, mom!" Ruby cried out. By this point, Weiss was practically dead below the waist, her face turning blue as Cinder's iron grip somehow cut off her airwaves, as the dying girl was dropped to her knees. It wasn't until she heard her sweetheart's pleas and Mei's whimpering that she finally released her grip, Weiss dropping to all fours as she gasped for breath again. The now-grandma Cinder herself frowned regretfully as she gave her daughter an apologetic look.

"Huff, I'm sorry sweetie. I guess I'm not entirely over the whole marriage thing yet."

Honestly, she didn't mind if her daughter was... interested in other girls. As matter of fact she was perfectly happy for her as long as it meant she was happy too! But out of all the possible girls it could've been, why on Remnant did it have to be with a Schnee? Why couldn't it have been anyone else like Blake or Pyrrha? Hell, she'd accept someone like Jaune marrying her over a fellow Schnee!

It wasn't the fact she took Weiss' last name either, it was all the burdens that came with it. Her daughter was happy and outgoing and full of energy, whereas the Schnees were full of themselves, stuck-up-snobs who only cared about decency in every aspect of life, no matter how boring it was, and respecting the power of money. Granted, having the Dust company to her name now did prove some merit to it, but every one of those Schnee creeps didn't show any interest in her darling whatsoever! All they cared about was buddying up to her in the hopes of her will and inheritance she now owned.

They were complete scum!

This is what Ruby came to know of her mother's thoughts, and the reason she was more understanding of her frustrations. "It's fine, Mom.

"NO IT'S NOT!" Weiss yelled getting back to her feet.

"Just promise me you'll try to get along with her this weekend." Oh, this was another reason Weiss didn't deserve her. She was too nice and considerate of other people, like the little angel she knew her to be growing up. She was too nice for a fellow Schnee! If anything the last name was more of an insult to Ruby herself than to the Schness!

"Mmh... Alright, hun. But only if you let me feed Mei once." She winked. With a chuckle Ruby hugged her again before grabbing Mei's diaper bag in the other hand, happily humming to herself as she began walking into her grandmother's domain. Her daughter was sweet, innocent, and nurturing. Just like Cinder knew she raised her to be.

And just like she wished Weiss would be after dumping several heavy bags on her. "You know where her room is.

"Hu- Wah!" And with that, Weiss found herself buried under mounds of heavy bags and luggage as Cinder casually strolled into the domain.

Just three minutes in and Weiss could already tell this was going to be a "fun" weekend...

...

...

"Neo!" Ruby cheered for joy as she ran into her step-sister's arms. The two girls hugged as tight as they could, having been nearly a year since they last met. As always, there was Neo, the lovely maid to the Queen of the Grimm, dressed in her fancy maid uniform as always when she worked. Out of the many people in Ruby's life, few ever came close to being happy ot see her as her lovely sister, the same one who grew the last few inches just to match Ruby's height after all these years.

Or maybe the new heels had something to do with that, one of the two.

Just like Cinder, Neo's face brightened up at the magical sight of Ruby's baby girl, the baby looking curiously as she sucked on her own fingers. Seeing the familiar expression, Ruby giggled as she looked down to her bundle of joy. "Mei, say hi to your Auntie Neo!" She waved Mei's hand for her, the baby giggling in response. Neo covered her own lips to let out an inaudible chuckle, then grabbed Mei's un-slobbered hand with two fingers,

This was one of the best places for Ruby and Weiss to find themselves during the stay at Salem's domain. Ruby's very own bedroom! Sure, they could've stuck around the penthouse which her mother still rented from time to time, but there was just so much hassle with all those long stairs and busy elevators. Top that off with being in the middle of a busy city nowadays, and there was no way they were going to get any shuteye with all the honks and busy lights keeping Mei awake and crying all night.

At least here they could find more comfort! WIth her grandmother being practically a queen, they could afford and purchase anything they needed off land via delivery, they had plenty of space to set up a playpen and crib for Mei, and the two girls had the comfort and safety of being within the very heart of the castle. There would be no need to worry about security as long as the Grimm roamed around here, the latest batch around here specifically created never to harm Ruby's new family, especially Mei.

Then again, considering 99% of all near deaths revolving around Weiss came directly from Cinder, the amount of safety they had was put in question.

"Ugh!" Weiss could be heard groaning as she finally burst into the bedroom, dragging the five heavy bags on her back. "Finally..." Unlike Cinder, Neo simply smiled to her politely as she helped take the numerous bags off of Weiss' person. "Hey Neo, nice seeing you again." Neo nodded back.

-NICE TO SEE YOU AGAIN ^^!- She greeted back, sign at the ready.

Out of the many people that made up Ruby's questionable family, Neo was the easiest one to get along with. With Hazel back working in Beacon as one of the staff's Gym and Exercise trainers, and Watts having returned to his job at Atlas, and Tyrian instructed to remain 100 miles away from Mei during their stay here, Neo was among the few people left to work around the grand palace. On top of that, she was always the easiest to get along with.

To Neo, anything that made her sister happy made her happy, even if that person was as rotten as a Schnee. Unless specifically ordered otherwise or if she did something to agitate Ruby, Neo never had a problem with Weiss. She preferred maintaining the always pleasant atmosphere she provided on a daily basis to anyone that didn't threaten her little sister. And if that meant being nice to a fellow Schnee like her little sister requested, so be it.

Besides, it's not like she personally had anything against the Schnee's like the rest of them did. Weiss seemed appropriate, well-mannered, granted a little stingy at times, but overall like a good person. And she made her sister happy, which was always a bonus to her. As long as she treated her sister properly like she wanted, they would get along just fine.

God help her otherwise.

"So, this is your old room, huh?" Weiss commented looking around. It appeared to be kept in mint condition, with everything spotless of dust and the sheets flattened and crinkled just like the day Ruby left it for Beacon. She had to admit, once you got past the feeling of having flesh-devouring monsters surrounding every corner of your home, the room did look rather welcoming. The drapes were elegant and transparent, the dressers and mirror were aligned to perfection, and everything had a rather comfortable warmth to it for a place supposedly without air conditioning.

"Yup, this is where I spent my golden days, whatever that means." Ruby replied dropping herself stomach first onto the bed. She set Mei aside and watched as the playful one-year-old crawl around the bed, chuckling as she carefully grabbed her when she neared the edge, placing her in the middle again. "It was just me, my uncles, my sister, and dear old granny to keep me company for the last five years of my life." She watched as Wolfie materialized across the bed, stretching out with a audible yawned that just made Mei giggle. "And a whole bunch of Grimm."

With this the large Wolf mother sprawled herself around as he lied down for a rest, ignoring Mei as she happily played with her ears, tugging on them and nibbling on them with what few teeth she had.

None of which the mother wolf could feel or minded.

"Wasn't it hard to adjust living near a whole bunch of deadly Grimm?" Weiss asked sitting on the bed next to Mei. "I wouldn't expect any kid to just get along with a bunch of scary monsters at your age."

"Well it actually wasn't all that hard really. Being around Wolfie for so long, I just sorta got used to it after awhile. It only took me a couple weeks in fact."

"Really?"

*Jingle-Jingle*

Both girls' attention were caught by the sound of Neo jingling the small bell she has in her pocket. With a hearty smile, she quickly doodled on another page of her "Talking Journal" and presented it to them.

-GRANDMA WANTS TO SEE HER NOW :) -

"But we already saw Grandma," Weiss rolled her eyes with a mumble, "I got the bruise to prove it." At this, Neo quickly edited the words in her journal.

-I MEAN GREAT GRANNY, AKA GRANNY #2 ^^-

"Huff, I guess we should go then, huh?"

"Yeah, let's g...go...sniff...ehhhhh" Ruby moaned as she pinched her nose a little. "I think she already went." She whined gesturing to the still-giggling baby. With a sigh, Weiss pulled out the necessary changing supplies and lied Mei flat on the bed, already undoing the straps to her white-hooded sleeper.

"I get the feeling Great Grandma would still prefer you over me, stinky or not." She cooed.

...

...

...

 ** _A/N: Yup, not much just like the last one, but at least it's valentine's day worth. It's a bit of a token for reaching the 500 mark on reviews ^^_**

 ** _I might do a part two, maybe not, idk. All depends on when I get done part 2 of the next episode, which is my next priority. Either way, hope you all enjoyed and had a grand Valentine's day. Always remember it's the time of love, and even if you don't have a date, you can always love yourself ^^_**

 ** _...AND NOT LIKE THAT!_**


	51. AN: Guess whoooooo!

_**A/N: Greetings one and all! It's me, it's not a joke, it's not some hallucinogen you got from drinking those weird bottles in your family's medicine cabinet!... though if you did that to begin with you might want to consult a doctor...**_

 _ **Anyhow! I know I have hundreds of fans out there, all wondering the same thing: WHERES THE NEXT UPDAAAAAAAATE?!**_

 _ **Well to answer said question: I'm dying-**_

 _ **Audience: Gasp!**_

 _ **A/N: To inform you-**_

 _ **Audience: Phew.**_

 _ **A/N: That my Hiatus-**_

 _ **Audience: Gasp!**_

 _ **A/N: Is ending-**_

 _ **Audience: Phew.**_

 _ **A/N: And I am no longer planning to write this fanfic for the foreseeable future.**_

 _ **Audience: Gaaaaaasp!**_

 _ **A/N: ...Which is what I would call my book if it was about-**_

 _ ***BANG!***_

 _ **A/N: Ack! OK OK just calm down!**_

 _ **Lol, hey guys, how's it going? All jokes aside, I am here to assure you all that the fanfic is not ending, nor ending anytime soon. This is actually a norm for anyone who kept in the past with my danganronpa fanfics- I would start my writing in september then by the next month of the new year i would usually go on hiatus just to repeat the cycle every year.**_

 _ **However, I have been wanting to get back to this for quite awhile actually, and i've been getting into the spirit again as RWBY Chibi has started coming back ^^ And to help get my mojo back up, I've decided to hold my next Holiday Spectacular Contest, those ALWAYS get my writing spirits up ^^!**_

 _ **As you may know, soon it'll be July 4- the thing is, for this contest, I'm willing to let ANY HOLIDAY be submitted for the entry, and will accept any and all forms of writing. Same Rules as always though, it needs to be at LEAST 3k words or close to it. With the "Any holiday rules", i hope that'll make things easier. It'll start between NOW till next week (as in next saturday, not tomorrow of course XP) Also to clarify, they can take place at any point in time in this RWBY's universe! From Ruby as an infant to how she is now.**_

 _ **I want to give my shoutouts to the big fans of the show who've shown support from time and time again after each chapter, and every one who's supported and motivated me to get through all this as the time goes by. With that said, expect the NEXT episode of season two BY NEXT WEEK :D!**_


	52. AN: WHERE AM I!

...you know, normally I'd have this big announcement explaining why I was gone for so long, what the heck I've been doing by introducing with a joke and whatnot, and spending 10x the amount of words needed to explain 1 little detail... but today, just to get into the jiggy of it (whatever that means), I think I'll be sticking to direct statement and facts.

What's up guys! I know you were expecting an update a tiiiiiny bit ago (rechecks last A/N)... as in nearly 5 freaking months (whoops), but I actually do have a valid explanation revolving that. See, admittedly, as I told one of my fans recently, I wouldn't have had the update done by the following week what with work going on, but I did have the energy for it to at least get some work done on it the following week, so you know, that would've meant a much sooner update. I probably would've had something the following week.

THEN WOULDN'T YOU KNOW IT, something just HAD to come up T_T. Specifically, work. See, I work a nice cosy 4-5 hour shift between noon and afternoon, which is nice, relaxing, awesome, etc. and etc. But apparently a change was made in one of the departments of our building that required a complete overhaul of our work hours. No one was fired (thankfully), but the hours were a little less than wanted...

I was working between 7 in the freaking morning to 4 in the afternoon T_T and that's not even counting the time I had to freaking wake up!

This started in the middle of June/July, and has carried on over to this day. And as you might imagine, when you're working nearly 8 hours a day EVERYDAY from 5 in the morning to wake up to freaking 4 when you're done or get home, you're completely exhausted to the point of your mind shutting down all other thoughts- and naturally, one of those thoughts were of the fanfic. Because of this, I had little to nothing going on in terms of thought process or work within my bones, saving all my excess energy for getting freaking home and then collapsing on my bed by nearly 6 o'clock X/.

Now on a fortunate news, this overhaul IS only temporary \^_^/! In fact, this whole work schedule thing will only last till the last week of November or so, and as such, we are slowly making our way back to fanfic-ing (the fact I have the energy to write even this much can attest to that)! Now I will grant it will take awhile to get back into the flow of things and whatnot, but to that I have a solution:

A RUBY Q'n'A Panel episode ^^! What better way to get back into the flow of things than to get some time with one of our lovely characters after the near year it's been since our last official update! And with all said and done, I believe it only appropriate for Nora and Pyrrha to host today's Q 'n A this time around!

So, as such, until Monday, leave your thoughts and questions for the two girls along the lines of anything you're interested to know! It can be how things have been with the team, what's up with current events, their thoughts on their teammates and friends, and everything else!

So for those diehard fans that have been with me till now, thank you so much for being so patient, and I apologize for the incredibly long wait. I promise things will slowly come back, with the rwby goodness you all love!


	53. Volume 2 Episode 1: Best Day Ever

_**A/N: Dun dun di duuuuun...**_

 _ **Dun dun dun Duuuuuuun...**_

 _ **Dun dun dun Duuuuun, Dun dun dun Duuuuun, Dun dun dun DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!**_

 ** _Yes people, I know. I can't believe it, you can't believe it, but it is. it is finally here after long last. The long awaited_** ** _sequel and beginning to season 2 is finally here~!_**

 ** _And no you didn't smoke anything cause that would imply I did do and have been suffering from a drug induced dream for the last 4 hours of writing XP._**

 ** _Lol, omg I am so happy to be back... is probably what I should be saying, but I'm not jinxing it for myself. There are so many thanks I want to give to my fellow fans for following along and putting up with the aggravatingly long hiatus up till now. I know it's been a long wait here, but for those of you following along, I've had a number of issues come in and out. Refer to past A/N's if you want full details._**

 ** _Now previously I said this would be a Pyrrha and Nora bit, but sadly that might be on hiatus as well as I slowly come back into things. I know it's been a long wait guys, but, hopefully with the feedback I love and cherish, I'll indefinitely get the next update sooner than a freaking year XP. With that said, there are some things I want to point out- specifically, as said... it's been a year. As such, writing after the first 1/5th (after the last preview), might be a little sloppy. Give it some slack, it's been a year since I last did any of this, the fact I wrote the food fight scene at all is nothing short of a miracle. Season 2 will take a little getting used to since I watched season 1 multiple times, and no so many times season 2._**

 ** _But whatever, we're here now and it's FANFIC TIME! With that said, sit back, relax, prepare for either really fun or really awful-after-being-absent-for-a-year writing, It's RWBY TIME!_**

...

...

...

Clear blue skies often brought numerous things with them. A sunny day, birds chirping overhead, several flying contraptions soaring across the sky. Oh, and the illusion of peace.

There were never any peaceful times around Remnant, that's what Ruby knew. They were always filled with the empty promises and lies of the fellow hunters, the people she's been pretending to work under for the last week, who claimed that everything was fine, the world was peaceful, and that they would be the ones to protect them. They always went on with how strong they were, showing off their prowess just to impress the public, and giving them the false image that everything was fine with the world.

What garbage!

The Hunters were absolute nightmares! They only did what they did for the glory and respect they earned when they completed their missions! They only cared about filling their pockets with Lien, showing the world that they were the greatest single person in the world, and that every word they said could be trusted! They didn't know what was really going on! They didn't have a clue about how many people suffered on a constant basis!

How about the people tat were murdered each and every day? How about the people who robbed them, unlike Ruby's family, for their own benefit or just to instill misery in the rest of humanity?! To claim that everything was peaceful made people simpleminded. It made them go along with whatever crap they heard on the news so academies and military didn't have to worry about them interfering with anything they did to make a profit. They didn't care period about anything unless it was to better themselves, only making things more sickening to Ruby when they finally DID do something good, not out of decency or kindness, but just to widen that smug grin on their faces for the rest of the world to see.

That's why Ruby was here. She came all the way to Beacon to accomplish one of two different tasks: Find the Fall Maiden, and then, if possible, kill her. It took her several weeks, almost a full two months at that, for her to accomplish the first part. It wasn't so much having trouble blending in with everyone so much as trying to figure out where the maiden was actually hiding. With an immense academy like Beacon, it was all too fortunate that she managed to find her anywhere at all! She would have a better chance finding a needle in the haystack, at least that would only take several hours. From entryways that were for staff only to all the corners around this floating landmass, there were too many possibilities to where the Maiden could've been.

If it hadn't been for Blake's unknowing assistance, she might've never found her at all!. Thanks to her general big sister, she reminded Ruby of all the fun times they used to have and the numerous times they used their imagination to get involved, like with super secret spy sisters or something, and in those times, Ruby realized that the only thing she had yet to check were the elevators themselves! What better security could there be than having a secret location accessible via only the elevator?

Of course, this brought it's own dilemma to how Ruby would get access to the secret floor, seeing how she didn't have a means to actually finding it, and asking any of the staff for some secret access card or something to the room was out of the question. Thankfully, being the resourceful little scamp she was, she found an alternative solution to her problems, one that was both efficient and completely subtle! ...At least to her it was in idea. And what possible solution did she come up with?

Blowing up the elevator's floor of course!

Thanks to her clever and igneous idea, personally speaking, she found herself dropping immediately down to the farthest reaches of the academy, way below anything the elevator gave the students immediate access to. It only took half a minute for her to come upon the secret final floor of the academy, the Vault which housed the school's many secrets only known to her and those aware of the true tales of the Maidens themselves.

It was there that she had found what she was looking for, found what took her so long to accomplish. Within the mysterious Atlesian device itself, was the maiden of Fall, Amber, the one purpose that kept her separated from her family for so long!

Unfortunately, that's also where things went from bad to worse in her line of work. Immediately upon arriving at the scene, she was greeted by the all-too-familiar sound of the Headmaster of Beacon, Ozpin himself, standing behind her. On some ounce of luck, or maybe the Headmaster was just really incompetent, she came to believe he thought she was nothing more than some treasure hunter, coming all the way to Beacon to study more about the Maidens themselves and to see if they're real, never realizing just how deeply he new of her true intent. At the same time, she also came across a different... problem... he set upon her.

Doubt.

She didn't doubt everything she had done up to this point, nor did she even think that what she was doing was wrong. The maidens were forces of destruction, people who needed to be snuffed out in the grand goal of making the world a better place, one her family had been working towards for who knows how long, especially her dear grandmother. But were these really the methods they needed to resort to? Did they really need to flat out kill the people who were responsible for making the world a terrible place?

At first, Ruby's reaction to this would've been "of course!" all the time. Why wouldn't she want to destroy anything that presented itself as true evil? But Ozpin said something that she had yet to get out of her mind even the week after; who was truly evil? The Maiden, or the person who would try to kill someone so weak and defenseless in the dire state she currently found herself in? Ruby always fought fight against people like those who would take advantage of others, advantage of the weak and helpless. So what did this make Ruby herself?

The question and line of doubt had been plaguing her for the last several months, the detention due to the destruction of one of the School's elevators not helping, since then. It was never a worry of whether or not she felt like she would or could betray her family, just something that's been nagging at her in the back of her mind since.

Thankfully today's outing with two of her favorite people, albeit not most favorite of course, in the world would help clear that up.

 _*plip*_

"Ah-!" Ruby yelped in surprise, practically startled by the pebble flicked at her forehead. She had no idea how long she was deep in thought for, just that she wasn't aware of anything else until just this moment. Turning to the direction of her pebble-assaulter, she saw the face of her self-proclaimed big brother of the group grinning slightly back to her.

"Hello? Earth to Ruby, you there?" He asked as the two continued leaning against the wall.

"Huh? Oh, sorry Merc, I was just thinking." She apologized staring back into the sky.

"Don't hurt yourself."

"Haha, very funny." She rolled her eyes, lightly tapping his shoulder with her fist.

Out of the two new "siblings" she's acquired over the last several years, Mercury was definitely her favorite. Unlike Emerald, he didn't seem to mind her company as much, and actually came to enjoy it if it meant getting involved in any shenanigans with her. At the same time, he also needed to be wary of what sort of pranks he pulled with her, or, more importantly, on her, less she incurs her mother's fiery wrath.

Speaking of siblings, the second of the two older ones made herself known as she finally walked out from the side of the building, Mercury giving a slight grin after hearing the conversation she had with the old man a few seconds ago. "I knew you were lost." Just like all good times, Emerald rolled her eyes at the statement. Nearly every conversation had to start out with either bad news, or him making some snide remark that really irritated her. It only got worse when the person she was incapable of yelling at felt like getting involved.

"Somebody owes me five Lien~" Ruby sung grinningly. Nothing felt great like winning a bet from an older sibling.

"Guys, I will pay you both to be quiet until we're finished with our task." Emerald said almost pleadingly, offering the wallet she just stole. Both Mercury and Ruby looked at each other for a few seconds, getting the same vibes from the other person as they looked back.

"Nah." They agreed in unison, getting the look of annoyance and irritation from the green-haired girl.

Annoyance and irritation pretty much summed up Emerald of the two siblings. It's not that Ruby found her annoying or anything, quite the opposite. Emerald had a tendency of finding Ruby herself to be rather annoying, and a handful since she apparently had just about as much authority over her aas her mother did, and was expected to respect her and everything she said or did as if she was addressing Cinder herself.

And that's what made things really confusing to Ruby. Personally, she liked the older step-sibling even if Emerald didn't show any interest in her herself. She was sympathetic with Emerald's lonely past, she was interested in her cool mind manipulation powers, and she just had that sporting attitude most teens had in this day and age. Plus she taught her a great deal of how to successfully pickpocket someone, a skill Ruby later found most useful in her life when she needed to steal something for her family or the White Fang they were slowly rebuilding a relationship with.

Plus it was nice to be able to have another sister to hang out with when Neo wasn't available, not that she could ever replace her mind you.

"Besides, it's not even your money." Mercury added.

"Speaking of which, why are you even stealing to begin with? You know you can just ask if you need to borrow some." Ruby reminded. Emerald rolled her eyes at this again before the trio began continuing the walk to their destination.

"You know your mom keeps nagging on me every time I ask for it." She replied. "I don't want a repeat of the last twenty minute pep talk she gave me."

"Well maybe next time you ask for money, you don't waste it on something pointless like getting your hair done." Mercury retorted.

These just about summed up the numerous kinds of conversations Ruby and her other "siblings" tended to have as they made their way down the city, which was just about the way Ruby liked it. It gave her a chance to have a time of decency, quietness, and overall peace. Be it going on missions with them, sparring, or just trying to find a way to pass the time after Ruby did her homework from Watts, these two managed to give her enough peacefulness to relieve whatever tension was built around her life.

"How much farther?" Mercury continued to complain.

"Just a few blocks." She answered. Out of the three, nobody wanted the day to end faster than her.

"This place is so dull..."

"Hey, it's not that bad." Ruby said with a puff of her cheeks. "I've spent a good couple weeks around the city. It has a decent number of stores."

"I know, right?" Emerald nodded in agreement. "It's a big city but nice and quiet. Tall buildings, diverse cultures-"

"And nice dopey people to pickpocket." He joked again, looking back to the two.

"That's every city."

"Oh, Emerald! Master Thief! Please don't take my money! I barely have enough to get by!" He gasped sarcastically. While it definitely wasn't brightening Emerald's mood, it was enough to leave Ruby with a few good chuckles as she decided to tag in.

"Grrr! I don't care about your family," she said in a low teasing tone, "I need enough money to buy some soap. I haven't bathed in weeks!"

"Mhh..." Emerald groaned as she pushed herself past the two, leaving them a small glare beforehand. Both teammates looked at each other with a small shrug, tagging along behind her wondering if they might've pushed it a little too far.

...

 _*ding-a-ling*_

The three were greeted by the sight of a seemingly-abandoned bookstore, the only light penetrating the room being the one from the clear windows. This was Tukson's bookstore, one of the few bookstores Ruby ever knew about, ad, more importantly, the location to their current mission. There were multiple fond memories Ruby had of this place while growing up, specifically all the times one of her favorite comics ever came out, or the one and only occasion she could recall them having a book signing for said comics.

The owner of the bookstore, Tukson himself, was even a really nice person! There were multiple times Ruby found herself dawdling around the bookstore, reading one comic after the other if she and her friends or family ever found themselves hanging around this part of the city for an extended period of time. Often on he was nice enough to let her read to her hearts content, even going as far as to let her remove some of them from packaging just so she could read them there.

Maybe a good part of that had to do with his affiliation with his other line of "business", one that was more than aware of Ruby's status and the group she belonged to, or at least how strong that group was. None of the White Fang, those higher up with authority and status who knew of Ruby's background, would dare get themselves involved with the girl out of fear for their own lives. Because of this, it was hard to say how many people from the White Fang actually liked Ruby, and how many of them were just saying they liked Ruby.

Regardless, she had many good memories and times here from her days of exploring the city and all it's people.

Too bad this was most likely going to be her last visit.

"I'll sure miss this place." Ruby mumbled as Emerald walked up to the counter, tapping the chiming bell. Almost immediately the owner appeared through the doorway at the back end, walking backwards into the store with several large stacks of books in each hand.

"Welcome to Tukson book trade!" He greeted as he set the books away. "Home to every book under the sun. How may- uhh..." He was cut off by the sight of his apparent customers, recognizing them all too well, especially the one in the White Hood. "H-How may I help you?"

"Just browsing." Mercury replied, sifting through the numerous books trying to find something, slamming shut any he finished with.

"The comics are over here, Merc." Ruby said, already reading one of the many mangas at the front of the store.

"Actually, I was wondering. Do you have any copies of The Thief and the Butcher?" Emerald asked with a curious smile.

"Yes we do." Tukson nodded.

"That's great."

"Are you interested in a copy?"

"Nope. Just wondering..." Nothing about her pleasing smile brought any joy to Tukson's own, and Mercury continuing to slam books shut eerily wasn't helping. "Oh! Oh! What about Violet's Garden? In paperback?"

"He's got it." Mercury spoke up, looking through the rows of books.

"He's even got it on hardback." Ruby looked over the book, giving it a quick skim of it's contents.

"Ooh, options are nice." Emerald commented rubbing her chin.

"No pictures though... what a bore."

"Oh, wait! I know! How about... The Third Crusade?" All ambience and all sound within the room suddenly became silent as she said this. While not directly, Tukson himself could feel all eyes on the shopkeeper himself as silence filled the room. Everything slowly made sense to the anxious bookkeeper as he looked around the room. Mercury was smiling to him, Ruby was smiling to him, and Emerald was smiling to him. They all wanted something from him, and not something you could find in a bookstore.

"Um... I-I'm sorry, but we don't carry that one." He said with a quick gulp.

* **Bam** *

"Oh." A disappointed Mercury sighed slamming a book.

"What is this place called again?"

"Tukson's Book Trade."

"And... you're Tukson?" Emerald asked raising her brow.

"That's right."

"So then I take it you're the one who came up with that catchphrase?"

"Such a catchy one too..." Ruby muttered, slowly dimming the lights to the outside and in.

"What was it again?" Mercury knowingly asked.

With another uneasy sigh Tukson replied, "Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun."

"Except, the Third Crusade." Mercury corrected with a small grin.

"It's just a catchphrase-"

"It's false advertising!" What nerve! What kind of place would falsely advertise their own catchphrase? And a book store no less!

"You shouldn't make a promise you can't keep, Tukson." Emerald stated. Typical. Not a single witness or civilian in sight. And this morning all he thought he had to deal with was a stubbed toe. "I heard you were planning on leaving. Moving all the way to Vacuo."

"Vacuo? Hoo boy, that's quite a ways." Mercury gave a small nod to Ruby's detail. "Bet it would take quite a bit of money to move that far away. I bet you wouldn't even have enough money to come back for who knows how long!"

"And your brothers in the White Fang wouldn't like that." Emerald added. "And neither would we." At this, Mercury's smirk widened as he dimmed the remaining books while Ruby slowly put the comic book away.

Dark building? Check. Malicious intent? Check. No witnesses in sight? Check. These were the usual steps you would see before a murder took place, and, unfortunately for Tukson himself, he knew who the victim was going to be. The biggest question in his mind was was it all worth it?

At this point, it was hard to say, but what was he supposed to do anymore? He joined the White Fang originally in the hopes of making things better for Faunus' everywhere, not to become a part of some terroristic group that harassed and harmed the innocent! Maybe his real mistake was not quitting sooner? Before all the violence started, before the White Fang came to be feared, maybe that was around the time to leave? It used to be such a peaceful place where any Faunus could live without worry or regret from abandoning the cause! Now every member who was a member had to follow through to the very end, less they risk their lives on the line.

And that's what Tukson did! He joined all of this in the hopes of getting out of this alive! Sure, he had friends, plenty of friends who were still in the White Fang! After al the time with them, he could even come as close as to calling them brothers and sisters. But with all the violence and mayhem currently going on, he just had to get out of this! He couldn't stand it anymore! He just had to get out of it, even if it meant risking his life.

"You know who we are, don't you?"

"...Yes." Tukson said blatantly.

"And you know why we're here?"

"... Yes." His response seemed to encourage Mercury to come closer to the two, Ruby sitting back and watching as the show was about to play out.

"So. Are you going to fight back?"

"...Yes!" Tukson growled as he leapt to the Counter, pulling his sharpened claws straight from his fingertips. He didn't care anymore. And what choice did he have? His options were to either die, die, or, his least favorite, die. At least this way, he could die on his get.

All it took for him was one grand leap from the counter as he swiped at her, and one dodge to end it all. He wouldn't be able to prepare himself for what came next, the look of confusion overtaking his overwhelming fear. The very next thing he saw was a grinning Mercury, who needed to deliver one quick blast from the soles of his metallic heels.

And the last thing he ever heard was a simple bang...

...

...

"Phew." Ruby sighed as she exited the book store with Mercury and Emerald following behind him.

"Are you okay?" Mercury asked as he checked to make sure the coast was clear.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I'm just... processing." It was a hard subject for Ruby to bring up for multiple reasons. She always had a problem with the idea of killing, but she could understand it's importance.

People were destined to die. That was the Ultimate Law of the universe. You could try to prevent it, even prolong it, but death eventually came for everyone.

The idea of it did slightly scare her as a child, but she eventually came over it thanks to her loving mother and sister. They taught her to appreciate life and what it had to offer, and didn't have a single reason to say otherwise. That was the best way for her to overcome her minor fear. The part she couldn't get over, however, was being the force that would take someone's life. There were a lot of bad people in the world, some worse than others, that deserved to die. They were horrible, evil, people who cared not for who they hurt or what they did, they were simply awful people. And while Ruby wouldn't like to say it out loud, she could easily agree that some people needed to die, just like Tukson.

He was a fool. Nothing more, nothing less. Actually, scratch that. He was a lot less, more than less. He was a total and complete coward! Did he have any idea what he was doing? He would've left the White Fang behind, and everyone that took the time to help him in any time of his life. They were always there for him when he needed it, and they fought by his side during their time in the White Fang. And what did he do? He planned on leaving them, everyone, everything he ever fought for!

All those times he fought by someone's side, all that time and energy spent on him to help support and encourage his line of work, he was about to make it all pointless. After all that time, he was practically spitting on the face of his friends and their families. He only looked out for himself, and on the likely chance he was weak of heart, he most likely would've turned his brethren in to the police too for amnesty, all just to save his own skin!

Those were the kinds of people Ruby hated. People who would backstab others just for their own gain, their own selfish desires. They were worse than scum, and almost as bad as the Hunters and Huntresses themselves. That's why Tukson had to die. It wasn't a matter of being a traitor, it was a matter of how many people helped him and believed in him, only for him to waste all their effort into him just like the rat he was.

Well, not literally since he was a Faunus, but close enough.

"You know you didn't have to come if you couldn't handle watching." Mercury said while continuing to skim through the comic he took from the store.

"I don't mind watching it, it's just..." It all came back to the same problem again. "I just can't force myself to kill someone for some reason. Every time I'm ready to pull a trigger or swing at someone's head, I just freeze up..."

"Well have you tried just picturing them as something you can kill? Like the Grimm?" Emerald suggested. "You hunt them on a weekly basis in your school anyway, so why not just try that?"

"It's kinda hard to when the people are full of color and life though." That among other certain reasons. She spent a good portion of her life constantly surrounded by the various Grimm, so to her they were just as much alive like any other animal in existence. And even if they weren't, it was almost impossible to find anyone around the world with any resemblance to them, save for her grandma. "That's why I wanted to tag along today, just so I can get more used to it. Plus I had nothing better to do before eleven, so it was a good way to pass the time." On a more curious level to her, the last statement made the two older step-sibling exchange glances with one another. "What?"

"Ruby, you do know it's almost noon, right?" Emerald asked.

"What? No it's not, it's eleven." Ruby assured, rechecking the small clock on her scroll to- "Why does it say 11:58...?"

"You knew last night was daylight savings, right?" Mercury reminded, briefly looking up at her from his comic.

"Whaaat? Nooo it's not, that's next week. Because if it was this week, that would mean..." Ruby's face slowly began to pale the same shade as her white-hooded cloak. "That I'm missing lunch...CRAP!"

And just like that, Ruby was took off with a burst of her semblance. This was just about the same old Ruby the two had the semi-pleasure of growing up with for the last several years. Some days were off, some days were a little bit whacky coming from the strangely sheltered girl who could make Grimm come out of her shadows. but either way you looked at it, she was still one thing that the two of them had gotten used to since the first meeting.

She was still a klutz.

"Do you think we should've told her about Cinder's so-called surprise?" Emerald asked Mercury as the two began walking down the street.

"Meh, let her find out for herself..."

...

...

"Awwwwhhhhhnnn!" Blake let out a long drowned out yawn as she rubbed her eyes sleepily.

"Geez Blake, you look exhausted." Nora commented as she continued to scarf down her morning pancakes.

"Sorry, just a bit... tired."

"You've been saying that for the last few weeks now." Yang mumbled as she ate. "You need to think up some better excuses." Blake rolled her eyes mentally at this.

Of course that would be her line of thinking. Why not take the easy way out and just confess her dilemma? Better yet, why not just tell all her surrounding friends everything until she reached her last breath? Oh, that's right, how clumsy of her. BECAUSE SHE WAS IN THE WHITE FANG!

That was the sad life Blake had been living in all this time. Not even before she came to Beacon, Blake had been leading a double life as a member of the White Fang for as long as she could remember. Attacks, heists, protests gone wrong, all of those things in the last several years se had a direct hand in, all in the hopes of making things right. Not right in the hopes these violent outbreaks and incursions would get the humans to treat Faunus with respect, but in the hopes f restoring the White Fang to it's former glory, back when the White Fang was known for being peaceful, known to accomplish their tasks through peaceful protests and banding together, not setting fires to shops or making head figures Faunus labor miraculously disappear. Unfortunately, these following weeks have dashed any and all hope she had of restoring the White Fang to it's former glory. Now she'd be lucky enough to even get out of the White Fang alive!

And who was to blame for that little detail?

...Honestly? Herself.

Not two weeks ago, Blake discovered the identity of her newest informant- the lovable and silly "Uncle Roman" she came to know Roman Torchwick as growing up alongside Ruby as a kid. All things considered, she wasn't that surprised by the turn of events. Nobody else was a criminal master of the underworld quite like Roman Torchwick, the entire city had numerous warrants for his arrests and almost every shopkeeper (all of whom looked coincidentally identical to that of a very old man) knew his face. Not a single shopkeeper wasn't unaware of Roman's dealings within the city, nor the corruption he was capable of and the dozens of people he managed to pay off on multiple occasions throughout his job history.

Which made it all the more sensible that he of all people would be the new informant. What's more, it became clear from the first two minutes of meeting him that he was going to both enjoy and cherish the time they had together. Not out of old times, not out of some sense of family or familiarity that was close between them. It was all because of one dark secret Blake had been hiding for nearly the last seven years since she parted ways with Ruby oh so long ago.

She was the reason they had separated.

To be more accurate, she was the very reason the White Fang became the sort of troublemaking lawbreakers that they were today, a fact not even her parents were aware of. Back when she was a kid, when she was still considered "Ruby's big sister", Blake made the worst mistake of her entire life. From what she used to call friends, she was entrusted by several various members of the White Fang to bring back different pieces and items from Roman's numerous Warehouses and back to her friends after each visit.

At first she thought it was a means to help both her family and her fellow Faunus. After all, how proud would her parents be if she was helping her family at such a young age! They would cherish her even more, they would see how useful she could be to the White Fang as she got older, she might even get to convince them to let Ruby become a full-fledged member too with the right convincing! After all, when the following months took hold and she got to reveal to her family about how helpful she could be, who were they to say no?

Sadly, even to a small child, fate was just too cruel. Not eight months after doing this, taking a little this, a little of that, enough of anything without either child's parents finding out, she discovered the true purpose of everything she was taking. She was taking the parts of several weapons and even an explosive mechanism, which thpe new White Fang required to make their grand depute, which was considered the first of many violent outbreaks since the White Fang's rebirth. On the plus side, nobody was killed during this initial riot, though the property damage was enough to make the day memorable. Numerous buildings were set ablaze, dozens of fellow humans injured. It'd be almost impossible to forget such a day, especially one Blake was present at.

And the worst part, the absolute worst part was, it was all her fault. Immediately after that incident, her parents cut all ties with the White Fang. What choice did they have? Their entire family was known at the time as the fellow heads of the White Fang. Even if they tried to fix it from within, everyone would always see them as the figurehead of the group, and that would constantly put their family at risk, especially their precious girl. Along with this, this also resulted in her family cutting ties from Roman and Cinder's line of work, forever cutting off any and all funding, provided they could even get that anymore, and disbanding all relationships with them. Which, at the end of everything, meant Ruby and Blake could no longer see each other.

All because of Blake's one mistake. A mistake Roman took full advantage of.

Ever since the meeting on the docks, Roman had been putting the poor Faunus through a living nightmare of work. Cargo thefts, briberies, illegal dealings, everything and anything Blake tried to avoid under her chain of command, by both her own hands and the ones who followed her. Thankfully, the only thing she managed to continue preventing was needless violence. Whether or not Roman was easing up on her, he couldn't afford to risk any injuries to civilians or those working under him. It was bad enough if one of his own workers got injured, but it would become way more problematic if civilians got involved. If a civilian was injured from their heists, the police would double down on their work and attempts at apprehending Roman and Blake's followers, and that would make any and all future heists and crimes unpredictable.

Still, the remaining free time Blake ever did have for herself when she wasn't with her friends or working on homework was spent going through mind numbing hours of physical work, pushing her to the point of exhaustion each and every day. Maybe he had some right to be angry, though. After all, her causing the White Fang to split apart from Cinder's line of work wasn't the worst part about their breakup. The biggest dilemma Roman faced from that day was how nearly all the loot he collected and stored within warehouses were emptied. Barely a single Lien remained after the White Fang snuffed out all the remaining supplies for their own agendas, forcing Roman and Cinder to restart all the wealth and work they accumulated over the years back to square one.

He had every right to be angry, she could admit at least that. And it was only going to get worse as time went on, until he felt like she paid off any and all debts she owed.

She would never be free.

"Heads up!" Nora chirped again as she tossed another meatball at the brunette, Yang casually catching it in one bite.

These were the only things that brought any ounce of peace to Blake's mind these days, just being out here and being able to socialize with her friends. Right now they were the only thing keeping her from literally ripping her hair out in frustration, the only thing that kept her from breaking down on the spot whenever the past caught up with her. It was the only thing that managed to bring a smile to her face anymore.

It did nothing to hide her tiredness, however.

"By the way," Pyrrha spoke up as she gazed around the room, "has anyone seen-"

"RIGHTHERE!' Ruby stammered as she burst to the scene at the end of the table. Like they've seen several times within the last week, she was quickly out of breath as if she ran a marathon, still donning her white cloak over her school uniform as always. The only new addition she brought to the table aside from her lunch was the oversized white binder she slammed on the table. "Sorry I'm late, I was-"

"Serving detention again, yeah yeah, the usual." Yang interrupted, catching another piece of food that Nora tossed.

"Heh, sorry." It was almost too perfect that her last several weeks of detention actually worked to provide the perfect cover story for her outings.

"Would ya mind telling me why you melted the inside of the elevator again?" Jaune asked. No matter how many times he heard it, there was just parts and pieces of it that sounded weird to him. Not that it didn't make any technical sense to it, just that there was something off about it as a whole.

"Look, when a girl has to use the restroom badly enough, she can't allow herself to be stalled by an elevator that suddenly suffers a power outage." Ruby replied.

Naturally, that was the furthest thing from the truth, but what other choice did she have? She couldn't just go on and explain how she melted an elevator to access a top-secret portion of the academy in order to execute a supposedly make believe maiden from a fairytale. Aside from the thousands of problems that would bring, it was also the small deal she made with Ozpin on the side.

Considering even half the staff of this academy didn't even know about the fall maiden being located within the academy, the amount of trouble it would bring the likes of Ozpin and those who worked with him would be never ending. Thus, to ensure secrecy on both Ozpin's AND Ruby's end, the two of them agreed to whatever convoluted story Ruby could come up with, while also serving several weeks of detention thereafter for the remains of the semester.

After all, even if there wasn't some sort of secretive underground Vault at the bottom of this school, that was still an elevator located at an elite academy as prestigious as Beacon. It'd be a miracle if Ruby somehow didn't get detention.

...Though come to think of it, when all's said and done, it might''ve been more unbelievable if Ruby did tell everyone the truth...

"But I don't remember hearing anything about some power outage on the day you did it." Blake commented, noticing the flaw of logic.

"Wellllll of course you wouldn't, because too many people would be more focused on the destroyed elevator." Ruby quickly reminded.

"Gngh argm with dat-." Nora paused as she swallowed,. "Can't argue with that logic."

"I don't know about that..." Ren remarked.

"Look the point is, I have gathered each and everyone of you here for a very important meeting." Ruby continued as she gestured amongst the group. "Friends, allies, Weiss-"

"Hey!"

"Four score and seven minutes ago, I had a dream."

"This outta be good." The blond commented with another bite of the thrown food.

"A dream that one day, all eight of us would come together as a team, despite our strengths, weaknesses, and Weiss-"

"Stop that!"

"-and together, would have the most fun anyone has ever had, ever!" She declared with a raised fist.

""Did that also include ransacking and stealing my binder?" Weiss asked knowingly with a small irritated twitch. The white-hooded figure just grinned as she gave the peace sign.

"I am not a crook. Nor a criminal. I'm just a simple leader with the dream of starting this year out with a bang!"

"I prefer to start my year off with a Yang~" The blond joked with a grin.

"Booooooo!" Nora sneered as she chucked an apple at the nose of agonizing punner.

 _ ***whack!***_

"OUCH!"

"Sorry..."

"Look guys, it's been a good two weeks, or... well I guess normal weeks around here." She rephrased. As much as she wished otherwise, the two weeks since the confrontation had been anything but nice, especially for some more than others. "And between more exchange students arriving and the tournament at the end of the year, our second semester is going to be great! But classes start up again tomorrow. Which is why I've taken the time to come up with a series of wonderful events for all of us today!"

"Wonderful for everyone or a specific few of us?" Jaune asked curiously. "I can't say I share the same enthusiasm for fighting wild Grimm here and there like the rest of you."

"Oooooh, or maybe we'll fight each other!" Nora cheered with excitement. "I can see it now, I kill off Ren, Ren kills off Ruby, Ruby kills off Yang, Yang kills of Weiss-"

"Wait, why is Yang killing me off?!" Weiss stammered, only becoming flustered when she realized what ridiculousness she was arguing about.

"Look, why don't we just calm down for a bit?" Pyrrha suggested, trying to ease the growing tension of the table. "I'm sure Ruby came up with an even and fair amount of things for us all to enjoy-"

* _ **Whap**_!*

"Ow!" Pyrrha yelped as she rubbed her slightly bruised nose. Nothing could prepare the redhead for the oncoming salmon Yang threw at her head, missing the intended target that was Nora.

"Whoops, my bad..." Yang mumbled in apology, awkwardly rubbing the back of her head.

"Mmmmmh..." Now normally, Pyrrha was usually the most levelheaded of the team, if not tied for first place with Blake. But there was just something about having full fledged piece of salmon thrown at her snout that really, really, irked her.

Well that and the rotten smell that accompanied it.

...

...

"Man, that's harsh." Sun's blue-haired friend commented as they walked along the building of the lunchroom.

"So then we were fighting side by side, and she was super fast! And then I threw a banana at the guy, which sounds gross, but it was so awesome!" Sun continued his incredible tale.

He couldn't help going on and on about the glorious tale of his heroism about how he single handedly saved Blake and her friends from the dreaded evils of the White Fang and the notorious Roman Torchwick who made his presence known to Blake. Thankfully he was well aware of the situation to not mention anything about Blake's involvement with the White Fang, or the fact she was actually one of the head captains of the White Fang. All he was concerned with was detailing the important facts, aka, his awesomeness and heroicness. That's all he needed to know out of all this.

"Nice!"

"Right? And the best part is, she's a Faunus!" Too little too late did he realize that other detail he meant to keep quiet. "But it's a secret, okay?"

"Got it." His pal replied nonchalant.

"And not a "I'm gonna go tell Scarlet the second Sun turns his back" secret. I'm talkin' secret secret!" Sun emphasized, having been through this multiple times, usually with the same result.

"Woah, chill out man, okay? I got it. I got it." It was hard to tell how genuine his closest friend was being when he spoke with such a sly tone. Either he actually meant what he said, or he was going to expect a favor from him in the future.

"You better. I just don't wanna screw this up, you know? The people here are the coolest!" And not even the windows he passed along the way revealing the current carnage of a food fight could change his mind! Within a single day of coming here from the boat, he met a pretty cat Faunus, one that strangely had both a tail and cat ears, and by the evening of the next day, he helped several students from Beacon take down an entire gang of White Fang criminals, practically labeling themselves as heroes! How could they possibly top that!? "The people here are the coolest! No offense to you guys."

"None taken."

"Ok, they're just in here. I'm really excited for you to meet them so be cool, okay? ...You're going to be cool, right?" Sun quickly asked as he prepared to enter the double doors to the cafeteria.

"Dude." His friend shot him a quick teethed smile, light sparkling off his teeth as he grinned.

"Heh, good point." And with that, the two marched their way into the entrance of the cafeteria, being met with countless students running out of the cafeteria, while hearing two particular words that made Sun's grin only widen.

"FOOD FIIIIGHT!" A student shouted, several dozen others continuing to run past the duo in fright and defeat.

This day just got a whole lot more interesting.

...

"Mwahahahahahaaaa!" Ruby's voice bellowed from atop the pile of Cafeteria tables.

The entire cafeteria had become the most recent victim of a warzone. Pizza splattered across the walls, pies were up on the ceilings, and various juice drinks sprayed upon the floor. What the two students from Vacuo saw before them was carnage. Nothing but bloody pizza sauced carnage. Many of the students who left the cafeteria would find themselves scarred for life, many of whom were unable to comprehend why such a horrific sight such as torn apart pieces of bread and gorey pasta noodles would be dangling from the ceiling, all that mattered to them was that they made it out alive.

Their children, and their children's children, would forever recount the saucebath that took place within the forbidden realm of horror. And who was to blame for this?

Honestly, that was the question of the day. What started out with a simple food toss between Nora and Yang feeding each other slowly evolved into the two of them tossing larger and larger pieces of food at each other, growing from crackers, to grapes, to strawberries, to meatballs, to oranges, to apples, and so on until Nora accidentally clocked Yang right in the nose with a solid hard apple. As opposed to being the sensible and understandingly calm and patient girl that no one knew her as, she returned fire with a nearby piece of salmon, a whole one at that, only to strike Pyrrha square in the nose.

That was the day, or in this case second, everything turned dark. Much to Weiss' very own surprise, Pyrrha returned this with a full-fledged cake from the table behind her, using her semblance to launch the massive projectile square into Yang's face, the excess splatter striking the rest of team WYJR who sat near her. It was ten that Ren found himself incapable of resisting, quickly grabbing several nearby pretzels and throwing them like shurikens at the red head, which would've struck her had Blake not grabbed her out of the way in time.

Unfortunately, this resulted in the pretzels striking several students behind them, some of them several tables away due to the accuracy and precision of the throws. This is what escalated the entire lunchroom into a full-on food brawl. Nobody knows who was striking who, nobody could tell which person targeted them directly. All anyone knew at this point was that it was survival of the fittest, and by the very end of that very brief two minutes it took, the members of Team RBPN found themselves at the center of the establishment, having driven out all the remaining students save for one other team.

The evil, dreaded, arch nemesis of the greatest team ever that was Team RBPN- Team WYJR.

"All puny subjects must submit to my rule of the Kingdom of Lunchton, or be destroyed!" Ruby decreed.

"Kneel to the queen or perish!" Nora chanted.

"Hmhm, I can't deny this is rather fun." Pyrrha chuckled, standing alongside Blake at the bottom of the mountain of tabletops.

"Eh, if we're going to get in trouble anyway, we might as well enjoy it." Blake shrugged smiling. Whether or not the group of students remaining got into trouble with what was about to commence was irrelevant. All Blake cared about at that moment was spending some fun time with friends, along with her self-proclaimed "younger sister".

"Silence!" Ruby commanded. "All those present not under my rule must submit to my judgement!"

"And that judgement would be...?" Weiss asked with the roll of her eyes. The remainder of the students found themselves at the opposite end of the cafeteria, nothing but an entire assortment of food and discarded tables between them and the supposed "Queens of the Cafeteria".

"You must either offer us all your deserts, or admit the superiority that is Team RBPN!"

"Never!" There was no way on Remnant Weiss would ever admit to that, joking or otherwise, that Weiss would ever admit to something so appalling. "We'd sooner die than admit to anything so horrid!"

"Are you sure you're being serious or are you just having fun with all this-" Jaune tried to question before being quickly interrupted.

"SHADDUPTANDHITSOMETHING-!" Weiss sputtered.

"Caaaan do!" And with Yang's pounding of her own fist, the war began.

 ** _(Now would be the time to play the foodfight theme while watching)_**

The blonde boxer dove straight down the long cafeteria room, leaping directly for the several turkeys found lying around to use as weaponry. To some, using the bulgy instruments of meat might've been one of the weirdest choices of weaponry, yet no one would dare question Team WYJR's powerhouse's choice of weaponry, less they find themselves on the receiving end of her gargantuan might. With both fists properly equipped she pounded the close end of a nearby long table, briefly lunging it into for Team WYJR's most agile warrior, Ren, to blast it away with a single kick, using his momentum and Yang's shoulder to get the necessary leap he needed to blast it away with full might.

Not a single member of Team RBPN was prepared for the colossal table as it struck the mighty fortress of Solitude. Fortunately enough, there was enough support for the massive structure to take the brunt of the attack, but everyone felt the wobbly vibration of the aftermath, Ruby barely maintaining balance being at the very top of the structure.

One more hit like that and RBPN's glorious empire was sure to come down.

"By the power of all that is delicious, OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!" Ruby's decree was met with a resounding "huzzah!" from her fellow comrades. This wasn't just a measly fight anymore for the right to call themselves the greatest team in all of Beacon.

This was war.

Blake quickly dashed ahead, dodging several projectiles of lethal cherry soda that was thrown her way, before grabbing several nearby sturdy baguettes, throwing one to Pyrrha as she continued down her path. The first of many resistances she was met with was Ren, the latter having equipped himself with a just as durable and fairly lengthy celery stick. It was here Blake took notice of Ren's physical improvement over the last several weeks as their weapons clashed amongst one another, the cat Faunus finding herself struggling to push through Ren's defensive stick despite the extra weapon she had over him.

Meanwhile, just passing through the two of them riding a metal serving tray as a surfboard, was the leader of Team RBPN, Ruby Fall, grinning ear to ear as she sped her way towards the leader of Team WYJR, the greatest "Frival" of Ruby, Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee company and indefinitely one of the prestigious genius' within Beacon. The Schnee looked to Ruby almost mockingly as she approached, seeming confident in whatever counterattack she had up her sleeve at a moment's notice.

Said moment came to Ruby no more than 3 yards away from her intended target when she found herself attacked by Yang, one of the two devilish cretins responsible for damaging her beloved castle. Luckily, with her talent of speed, she managed to swiftly stop any and all sudden momentum as she turned, grabbing onto the table itself as Yang attempted to swipe her at the head from above. However, much to Ruby's surprise, Yang's quick follow up to this caught her completely off guard as she struck with a dreadful uppercut, not only knocking Ruby off her own two feet but also blasting all the way back into the castle, the massive structure collapsing upon her giving her no room for rest. All her fellow comrades could do was look in horror at the death of their beloved queen.

"Queen Ruby's been killed!" Blake fretted, narrowly backflipping out of the way of Ren's last strike.

"Grrrr I shall avenge her!" Nora screamed. Following along with the hyperactive comrade's shout, Pyrrha quickly gave her a boost with her own two hands, the Valkyrie stepping leaping off of them as she lunged into the air. Who needed a war hammer when all the easily-excitable girl needed was a steel pipe from the ceiling and a watermelon down below?

Not the Queen of the Valkyries, that's who!

She didn't even need to think about who to approach out of the trio- it became personal when the evil wicked witch of the Yellow slaughtered their generous Wolfe-summoning Queen, Ruby Fall. Without any hesitation, she bashed the makeshift war hammer atop the blonde, Yang blocking with both her gauntlets as the full force of Ruby's general of the guard struck her. Despite not landing a direct blow, Yang could feel the intense might behind Nora's powerful crushing might, nearly bringing the blonde down to her right knee, and barely managing to push the Valkyrie off herself as the war went on.

As opposed to Ruby, Yang found herself more outmatched by Nora's crazy attack patterns. One of the many things Weiss practiced with her was always fighting from the defensive before launching a massive counterattack. Needless to say, Yang was more of an active head-to-head fighter rather than a patient individual who watched how one's fight would play out. Too bad too because if she had learned anything from Weiss' many teachings, she would've been able to protect herself from the sudden massive swing of Nora's hammer striking her from right under her nose, the poor boxer suddenly blasting off into the far reaches of space as she launched to the sky.

"Waahhhhhhh~!" Was echoing scream the remains of Team WYJR heard as Yang left their atmosphere. The fight had now been broken down to an uneven 2 to 3.

Team RBPN had the advantage.

"There goes Yang..." Ren mumbled briefly distracted.

"Watch out!" Weiss nearly yelped as she pushed Ren to the side, quickly blocking the moment of opportunity Blake attempted when his guard was down.

There were many interesting weapons one could find within the confines of the cafeteria, only so many of them being worthy of being held by the Schnee Heiress. Out of the many and wide varieties of weaponry she could choose from, she stuck with the blue swordfish within her grasp, being sturdy and firm enough to act as her rapier. Mind you it wasn't as classy as her favorite weapon, nonetheless it proved to be an invaluable tool for the team's leader.

Fortune still seemed to smile upon Blake though as no sooner had Weiss entered the fray, Pyrrha appeared from behind her, quickly swiping away and allowing Blake to return to her previous bout with Ren himself, the latter quickly regaining footing and narrowly removing the cat from the arena as a result. If there was bright side given to Team WYJR in turn out of all this, it's that Weiss finally found sudden moment to speak to the professional Huntress of Team RBPN.

"It's not too late, Pyrrha," Weiss stated, "give up your evil ways and join our side, and we'll rule the cafeteria forever!"

"Give up?" Pyrrha grinned at the comment. "And leave this side? No way, we have cookies!" It was with that comment that Pyrrha subconsciously shifted her eyes to the side, a detail Weiss took easy notice of as she quickly looked behind her.

"You got that right!"

Apparently Pyrrha's strange and childish cookie comment wasn't unintentional or without merit behind it. Approaching at fast speeds, stealing the same idea Ruby had earlier, was Nora Valkyrie, riding atop a metal tray as she sped her way towards the party of food fighters. In her right hand was her handy dandy weapon, using it behind her as a means to steer the metal contraption and pick up speed where needed. In the other, was a massive array of chocolate chip cookies, some with nuts, others pure sugar, all of it completely lethal.

Without missing a single beat, Nora launched herself in the air with a twirl, firing a barrage of cookies at the two members of Team WYJR. It was here Ren found himself at a loss. Each time he attempted to block one of the cookies that struck him with as much force as a brick, Blake attacked him with her baguette. And every time he tried going on the defensive against Blake, he found his back pelted by several hard-hitting monstrous cookies, each expertly striking a joint or muscle of his, throwing his battle techniques and maneuvers out of whack.

It only took several more moments of this back and forth onslaught before Ren finally found himself defeated, having lost his footing from the under swipe of Blake's attack. With the ninja literally knocked off his own feet, it took just a single, albeit massive strike from Blake, blasting Ren back against the other side of the lunchroom.

The fight was now 1 to 3, all for just a mere moment.

Reacting quickly to the very minor distraction and room caused by Ren's defeat, Weiss quickly backed away from the elite Huntress that was Pyrrha, all while grabbing a nearby ketchup bottle with a plan forming in her mind already being set in motion. With one giant burst, across the tables and floors behind the Schnee, Weiss scattered the remaining sauces of the ketchup just as Nora came down. As expected, with the boost of momentum and gravity caused by her very own falling, Nora was helpless to stop herself as her feet slid against the sprayed continents, almost slipperier than ice itself, sliding her across the floors and right past a deftly dodging Weiss.

The same amount of deftness was sadly lost to Pyrrha however, as she found herself tackled by Nora in the oncoming rush, falling back alongside her and getting slid away from Weiss. Unlike Pyrrha though, Nora's sliding didn't stop when she was halfway across the lunchroom. At the same time that Ruby Fall had finally began pulling herself out of the massive heap of tables, she was just as suddenly knocked over by a tomatoey splattered Nora, Nora crashing into the broken heap of a castle right behind her just as soon as Ruby regained freedom.

"Nora!" Ruby cried out, quickly pulling her comrade from the rubble. Despite not taking the brunt of the entire castle like Ruby had, Nora did take a majority of the sudden launch straight to her noggin, dazing the girl just enough for her to be knocked out of the game. No amount of pleading or fake crying from Ruby's eyes could bring Nora from the brink of death.

"Ough-!" Nora coughed, weakly reaching for Ruby. "Avenge... me... Urk-! Bleh..."

"Noooooooooo!" Ruby's cries of anguish were found deaf to Nora. The Valkyrie had left this world and lead straight into the afterlife... at least until lunch was over.

With this tragic event, while Pyrrha was still struggling to regain her footing and return to the fight, Blake found herself going mono-a-mono with the ice queen. The Schnee had successfully brought this match to temporary 1 on 1, and if the rest of her plan fell into place, it would soon be 1 to 0.

A plan Blake already had taken advantage of as she lunged for the girl, now gripping, to Weiss' surprise, a long string of sausage links. The heiress took the brunt of the sudden and new attack as Blake whipped against her chest, knocking her several yards back and sliding across the rest of the way thanks to the recent Ketchup spill Weiss had caused earlier. The long range was definitely going to make things a bit more tricky for the remaining fighter of Team WYJR.

"Are you okay?" Blake asked as she saw Pyrrha return to her side. The redhead panted for a short while as she regained her breath, nearly losing her footing several times thanks to the long streak of ketchup Nora left behind.

"Yeah I'm fine..." She replied. "So now it's down to us, huh?"

At the same time, Ruby herself gazed over the battlefield. There were no true victors in war, only death was the ultimate victor. She had hoped whatever earthly angels watched over this planned could forgive her subjects for the carnage and destruction they had wrought. It was a necessary sacrifice all the same. "So let's see here..." She rubbed her chin as she examined the scenery. "We took out Punchy and Quicky, and Icey is on her last legs. So that just means-!" Ruby's eyes shot wide open at a great realization. "Wait a minute! Where's dorky!?"

* _tweeeeeeeeeet_!*

All eyes and attention was returned to the far end of the lunchroom where Team WYJR had originally started. No sooner had Dorky, aka Jaune, been called at he made a sudden appearance, gathering everyone's attention, friends and enemies alike, right alongside the masterpiece of Weiss' ultimate strategy.

"All the freezers are ready and unplugged, Captain!' Jaune called out, panting out of breath. Weiss grinned to herself as she quickly drew back to the far end of the Lunchroom near the several freezers. Along with this, Ren slowly regained his own footing as he trailed behind Weiss, shaking off all the minor injuries he had sustained in the midst of the great and bloody war.

No one from Team RBPN had even an inkling of what was going on, and they were going to pay because of it. Not once throughout this fight had any of them realized they forgot about someone, a certain and particular member from Team WYJR known as Jaune Arc. The kid was well known in his own ways, some positive, some negative. He was a rather weak fighter, perhaps the weakest of Team WYJR, but he was still a dedicated soldier who knew how to follow through on all the team's strategies and combat training. If there was one thing Weiss could even agree to, it was that he could pull through when the team really needed him.

Which is why she organized for him to prepare and wheel out several of the cafeteria's freezers while the rest of Team WYJR kept Team RBPN distracted, a successful endeavor as none of the teammates had anticipated this dilemma, and were just about to face the repercussions of this fault.

"Nice work on those freezers Jaune, perfect timing." Weiss complimented, knowing the warrior had earned some form of praise.

"Huff... yeah... great work... huff... took forever... to find a set of wheels for them though... huff..." Juan panted. Naturally, without immense strength or assistance, a single man can't usually lift an entire freezer, much less a fridge, so easily. It was the only hiccup in the delay as to whether or not this plan could be pulled off, as it all hinged on the single detail of whether any of the nearby freezers came with wheels attached to them for transport.

The wheels were naturally found, and now it was time for the final phase of Weiss' great strategy.

"No matter. Now is the time to end this." When Ruby grinned, it was pretty common. When Nora grinned, it was too common. When Blake grinned, it was a rather rare sight to see, but you could tell she was happy about something. When Weiss smiled though, nothing good ever came out of it.

"What is she planning with those Freezers?" Pyrrha asked Blake, wondering if the Faunus had any more of an understanding as to what was about to happen.

"How should I know?" Blake responded. "They're just filled with ice... cream..." Both Pyrrha and Blake slowly began to realize just what the evil Schnee had been planning up to this point, the one attack Weiss knew would end this ridiculous fight once and for all.

"It's Weiss-cream!" Ruby's shout was left with silence as Weiss began gathering energy from her aura and projected a massive glyph upon the ground below her. To the surprise of her team and the fear to the rest, the massive glyph grew in size as it stretched far along the lunchroom, just far enough to cover a good 3/4ths of it, just ending at the halfway point between Ruby and her two currently-standing allies.

With a simple last smile upon her face, the mighty freezers began to shake violently as gallons upon gallons of ice-cream suddenly began to spill out from it's holding. The ice-cream came in many forms between vanilla, chocolate, strawberries, even some of the non-creamy products like popsicles and ice from the freezers slowly coalesced into a giant single wave as a giant misshapen ball of cream slowly gathered atop of Weiss' team, the giant ball being twice the size of any of the massive tables, and still growing. This wasn't just from the freezers, at this point Weiss' own ice powers slowly manifested along the giant glob, growing it's massive size into already unbelievable-proportions! There was no avoiding such an attack and there were certainly going to be no survivors from the enemy's team.

Just the way her master plan was intended.

With a simple smile and a swift thrust to the ground with her swordfish, the remaining combatants watched on as the giant ooze formed an almighty wave of ice-scream, watching the massive wave being hurdled towards Blake and Pyrrha themselves. Blake herself was just awestruck at the massive form, surprised Weiss had even come up with such an uncouth yet cunning plan, while Pyrrha slowly regained any feeling she had and attempted to flee the confines of the battleground and towards their shattered castle, where at least they could provide some form of necessary cover.

Sadly, fate did not smile upon the two heroes. It was all swift yet deadly as the giant wave suddenly swept up Blake and Pyrrha in it's grasp. Breathing within the massive cream wouldn't remain an issue for fairly long as the two knew it would be landing upon the remainder of Ruby's castle fairly soon. Yet that did nothing to hide the uncomfortableness of the ice-cream riding along the two, getting the cold cream along their legs, letting whatever inch of body had remained untouched to shiver uncontrollably.

As much as Ruby wanted to help, she knew she would be just as helpless had the glob of evil taken her too. Reacting with as much feeling as she could get back into her arms and legs, both being half-asleep after being pinned under the tables for several minutes, Ruby braced herself against a table as she blocked the incoming assault of Weiss' terrible attack, pushing against the table as hard as she could against the massive wave that tried to push against her. Somewhat thankfully, for a moment, Ruby noticed a familiar head sticking out of the inside of her cloak, a familiar canine trying to help her dear pup against the terrifying wave that would've swept her along with her allies. As much as Ruby wished she could've continued this little assistance, she knew she could never afford to let Wolfie come out anywhere in Beacon save for her own dormitories, and sadly called the mighty wolf Grimm back to the confines of her own shadow till she was finally needed.

After what felt like forever, which in reality probably was no more than twenty seconds of an endless ice-cream stream, Ruby finally found the massive assault had come to an end. All amongst her were her dear sweet comrades, lying beaten and battered. For what little did pass directly behind herself, Nora was pushed further into the heap of what used to be her castle, all of her hair covered in the evil cream that Weiss created. Past her she found the remains of Pyrrha, the cunning strategist of her team, half-beaten over the remains of a table and severely out cold, in no small part thanks to the ice-cream itself. And Blake, her dear beloved and faithful sister, by god the sight was too gruesome. All she could say was that the cat girl was just sliding along a cracked pillar, both the Faunus and the pillar completely covered in ice-cream, creating a rather irritating streaking noise as she slid down it.

This is all that remained of her army. They were good soldiers, each and every one of them. She would have to make sure their families knew they wouldn't come back from the war, but they would be avenged!

"Grrrrr!" Ruby growled to herself as she looked back. Much expectantly, there she saw Weiss grinning back to her teammates, remains of team WYJR having believed they eliminated each and every one from Team RBPN. In a way, they sort of did. They were each knocked down and casted aside thanks to the combined efforts of Weiss' leaderships and her teammates support. There was just one minor detail none of them had anticipated out of all this; Ruby wasn't as knocked out as they originally thought she was.

And she was pissed.

In the effort of playing along to the cliche of "fight fire with fire", Ruby rose to her feet for split-second, before making a quick and powerful beeline to the remainder of Team WYJR. If Weiss wanted to play using her semblance, then there was nothing saying Ruby couldn't do the same with her mighty semblance. With each second, her speed doubled. With each burst of speed, the surrounding scraps of food, including the glob of Ice-cream Weiss had basically thrown at them, began to trail. Following along Ruby was a literal storm of food, the likes of which no one in the field of war had ever seen before, and one no one would ever soon forget!

Reaching halfway, it was only then that Jaune noticed a slight trembling in the ground, having been too distracted by the cheers of victory he helped Team WYJR achieve. This same notice of trembling was soon felt by Ren, followed almost immediately by Weiss, as they looked back towards the source of the great Tremor. None of them had expected anything like this, for the last surviving member of Team RBPN to be able to muster a force of speed as powerful as the one they had been shown right in front of them. Weiss was the only one to react quickly enough to plant her weapon in the ground, holding onto it like a base as Ruby quickly dashed past her. Her two brave soldiers were sadly tossed along behind her as they were suddenly pulled by the mighty silver-eyed warrior's speed, getting thrown back against the wall as Ruby had eventually come to a sudden halt, one which created a shockwave against the wall as it had ended.

Weiss briefly thought she was safe when she felt that Ruby had come to a sudden and dramatic end. Her thoughts were shattered when she let out a silent "Aww" at the sight of a literal hundred gallons of food and other assortments heading straight at her, helplessly pelting her with just about every scrap of food that had been thrown throughout the entirety of this food fight, and strong enough to finally pull her off her feet and throw her against the wall with the others. It was at this point the other two comrades-in-arms found themselves getting destroyed by the onslaught of food that rained upon them, not having the ounce of strength needed to push against the barrage of foods and sodas that had set against them.

After a full minute of this heinous attack had everything finally settled. With the remains of Team WYJR being a splattered mess on the wall, the team members themselves slowly falling off the sticky wall to the ground before them, did the war finally come to an end. It was just as bloody as Ruby expected it to be, and not one thing seen within this war would ever be forgotten.

 _ **(End theme)**_

"I love these guys." Sun's comment was completely lost to his friend who couldn't hear with all the food juice in his ears. The only thing he could sense in any regard was the vibration caused by a teacher's sudden entrance to the cafeteria.

And out of all destruction caused by both teams, there was only one major detail that truly mattered to the leader of Team RBPN.

"We WIN!" Ruby shouted, arms raised in triumphant cheer, practically dancing along with each chant. "We win~! We win~! Uh huh! We won! Oh yeah! We-"

"Eh hem!" A familiar voice from behind caused Ruby to freeze dead in her tracks. Perhaps the dancing and the chanting wasn't the best thing to do after all that had been done to the lunchroom, one totaled in the complete destruction caused by a mere eight students of Beacon. One by one, the remaining students slowly came to as the war had finally ended, Blake helping Nora out of the debris, whereas Weiss softly grunted as she squeezed whatever food juices she could out of her hair. All the while Ruby slowly turned back in the direction of the familiar sounding cough, meeting the gaze of a teacher who had always found Ruby at the front of every major issue at this school, who also didn't seem to have a good track record with her.

Glynda Goodwitch.

At this, the only thing Ruby could do was finish up her previous sentence. "Eh heh... We didn't... do it?" She peeped as she slowly backed away.

* **CRASH**!*

There was no time to check for the source of the sound as Ruby had found herself tackled to the ground by a previously-airborne Yang, the fighter having just now re-entered Remnant's atmosphere after long last, right atop of Ruby.

"Children, please." We're Glynda's first words uttered before suddenly using her magic to catch several pieces of food flung to her. With the skillful fling of her wrist and the power of her own semblance, the lunchroom miraculously began reorganizing itself to how it once was, minus the mountains of food that littered the cafeteria's floors. The recovering students watches as Glynda returned each and every piece of furniture to how it once was, taking apart the remains of Ruby's castle and organizing it perfectly to how it once was before all of this started. If you had come to this grand room several seconds ago, you wouldn't think that a massive fight had broken out by the time Glynda finished cleaning it. "Do not play with your food."

Despite the crushing pain Ruby felt from Yang landing on her, Ruby actually found herself slowly laughing alongside Yang, several of the students gathering around as they broke into massive laughter themselves. It would appear that this war had no winners in the end, only children who just liked to have fun, at just about everyone else's expense. If it wasn't for the fact Glynda knew too much about Ruby's origin and the details of her being here, she would've almost been at ease at the sight of her laughing like a child should. Yet she knew, in no small part thanks to Ozpin's past announcement, that Ruby had found the summer maiden just a few simple weeks ago. Whatever this girl did from this point, regardless of killing the maiden or not, would always put Glynda on edge.

Only one person's voice could relieve any tension on her shoulders.

"Let it go." Ozpin spoke out as he approached from behind. He didn't seem the least bit phased by the chaos that ensued within the last three minutes of this lunchroom.

Glynda did what she could as she sighed, trying to relieve as much stress as she could before addressing him. "They're supposed to be the defenders of the world."

"And they will be," Ozpin replied, glancing over to the white-hooded girl who goes by Ruby Fall, "given enough time. But right now they're all still children." As if to prove his point, the two watched as Ruby, Blake, Ren, and Yang shared drinks of soda with one another. The leader of Team RBPN could be seen coughing almost immediately upon the first sip, the liquid going down the wrong pipe apparently. This did nothing to hinder the enjoyment the students recently experienced, refilled with the same energy they had lost during the fight.

"So why not let them play the part?" He insisted as he slowly walked away. "After all," he paused for just a moment to glance back at the silver-eyed girl, "it isn't a role they'll have forever."

The truth to this statement was deeper than Glynda had realized.

Right now, multiple events were about to unfold. Much has happened throughout the several weeks since the apprehensions of a dozen White Fang members. There wasn't going to be many happy moments like this forever. Eventually a point would come where the kids would have to grow up, where the teammates would learn the truth about one another.

Because at the end of all light, only darkness remained...

...

 ** _~There's a point where it tips~_**

 ** _~There's a point where it breaks~_**

 ** _~There's a point where it bends~_**

 ** _~And a point we just can't take~_**

 ** _~Anymore~_**

 ** _~There's a line that we'll cross~_**

 ** _~And there's no return~_**

 ** _~There's a time and a place~_**

 ** _~No bridges left to burn~_**

 ** _~Anymore~_**

 ** _~We can't just wait with lives at stake~_**

 ** _~Until they think we're ready~_**

 ** _~Our enemies are gathering~_**

 ** _~The storm is growing deadly~_**

 ** _~Now it's time to say goodbye~_**

 ** _~To the things we loved~_**

 ** _~And the innocence of youth~_**

 ** _~How the time seemed to fly~_**

 ** _~From our carefree lives~_**

 ** _~And the solitude and peace we always knew~_**

...

...

...

 ** _A/N: Ok so just to quickly point out, I know I'm missing the last 2 minutes of the first episode, but let's be honest people- do we want a finished episode or a never episode X/? Cause the sooner I get past this episode the sooner I can continue._**

 ** _With that said, major props again for all the positive feedback and folks who've kept with me till this point. Your applause and comments helped me get through this stupor, and I'm excited to finally get back into the fanfic!...Just don't expect dailies, that miiiiiight be awhile before getting back to XP. Hopefully this nice long and chunky chapter gave you guys enough relief and fun for what I had- I also have to point out the irony of my timing. I seriously did not plan to have this posted near/on/by thanksgiving, yet here we are... I find the timing of a giant food fight scene before thanksgiving to be rather fitting... lol XP_**

 ** _Also, as you always know, it's time for another contest! Specifically, a birthday Fic contest. For those familiar and unfamiliar with these contests, the rules are pretty simple. Do a birthday fic starring Ruby or any of her friends from my fanfic's universe- if you do use her friends, then it must take place at Beacon during the time Ruby's there, except for Blake, and as such, the birthday can take place at any part of Ruby's life from 1-year-old to present ^^. Rules for the contest are pretty straight forward- no smut (_** ** _obs), but we do allow shipping themes, though it's not mandatory. Also fic needs to be a minimum of 2k Words at LEAST._**

 ** _As far as points go, the winner goes to whichever fanfic I deem the best, and has the most work put into it ^^. Everyone is eligible, just be sure to tell me if you are joining or not, and the deadline is Dec. 1st. Post it by then, before then, or before Midnight of Dec. 1/2 to be eligible._**

 ** _The winner of the contest will receive a chapter request of anything they want to see in this Rwby- refer to my Wolfie chapter for a better understanding of what I mean by anything. Mostly it has to be canon of course, but i will make it long and enjoyable as possible for the grand prize winner ^^._**

 ** _Again, thank you all to those who've stuck by me till now. i apologize for the long wait once again, and here's hoping my next one comes MUCH MUCH sooner._**

 ** _Thanks a million to my many fans, and hope to get some feedback from you soon ^^!_**

 ** _Ps: Also looking for someone to write scenes for the intro to this one. "winner" gets their scene posted throughout the entire volume!_**


	54. Status Update - New Fanfic Series

_**A/N: Hey guys, me with another one of my infamously annoying Author's Notes (which just occurred to me you could argue the A/N is for annoying and not Author's notes XP...wow that's sadder when I think that out loud...)**_

 _ **Anyway as some of you may have seen, at least those following my author works on a whole and not just this story, I've been busy working on a new fanfic series based off the increasingly popular She-Ra 2018 Reboot series, and I gotta say... the series itself is a LOT of fun! There's a huge amount of character and hurt/comfort behind the entire series and a lot of really good animation and action to it!**_

 _ **I became a fan of it recently about a month ago and have been working on my own She-Ra fanfic series for awhile now, with near-daily posts here and there and the feedback I've gotten for it has been a lot of fun!**_

 _ **Now I'm not here to say "I'm done with this fanfic" or anything, me doing this was to actually help me get out of a slump of things here and there. I'm surprised I wrote as much as I have for it given how recent of a fan I became of it. The Fanfic itself is a What-If scenario series following along the big question of "What if Catra Became Shera instead of Adora" and all that, and based on the feedback I'm getting, it's pretty popular.**_

 _ **I'm just here to let those who are waiting endlessly for anything new from me that they can expect work in that area from me for a good while now. I'll be working on that series for who knows how long (least till the first season is over) as I await patiently for the 2nd season coming out late this April ^^. If anyone here is a fan of my previous works, i highly recommend the fanfic.**_

 _ **I also recommend looking up the She-Ra 2018 series because it's fanbase is growing at an incredible rate. With all it's action, animation, surprisingly saddening drama, it's a MUST for fans of RWBY (for reasons you'll find rather obvious hint hint XP). I managed to convince Endlesschains to take a look at the series and he was thankful for the experience! And now he's one of us :D...One of us. One of us. One of us. One of us T_T...**_

 _ **Lol, anyway, as I said, sorry for no actual update-update on this thing but I am hoping you guys enjoy the she-ra fanfic I'm doing to help you pass the time. Take a look at the series and the fanfic if it interests you too. It is a netflix series but I'm sure you can find it online somewhere if you don't have netflix.**_

 _ **With that said huge thanks to the fanbase of this fanfic. I swear i will get back to it one day in a couple months hopefully (school is being a DRAAAAAAAG T_T!) but for right now, hopefully this other series will be enough to fill your curiosity and fun ^^. Thanks again to all the fans and reviewers out there and if you do check out my fanfic, hope you'll leave some nice reviews! After all- reviews = faster uploads, and faster this series/fanfic is done, the faster i get back to rwby ^^!**_


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